Saturday night’s debut of the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) on NBC was the most-watched professional boxing broadcast since 1998, according to Fast National Data from The Nielsen Company.
The PBC on NBC telecast averaged 3.4 million viewers, ranking as the most-watched professional boxing broadcast in 17 years (“Oscar De La Hoya’s Fight Night” on FOX, 5.9 million, Mon., March 23, 1998). Viewership increased every half hour through the telecast and peaked at 4.2 million from 10:30-11 p.m. ET during the exciting Rounds 7-12 of Keith Thurman’s unanimous decision over Robert Guerrero
One of the most important numbers to note is that PBC on NBC also led NBC to a Saturday primetime victory among Adults 18-49, with a 1.08 rating in the demographic.
“The return of primetime boxing to NBC for the first time in three decades got off to a strong start last weekend with Saturday’s PBC on NBC debut,” said Jon Miller, President of Programming for NBC Sports and NBCSN. “With our next primetime telecast on Saturday, April 11, we look forward to building on the momentum that this first event clearly established. We are excited that high-quality boxing is back on NBC.”
More numbers:
Saturday night’s telecast (8:30-11 p.m. ET) posted a 2.11/4 fast national rating – up 174% from the average boxing telecast on NBC from 2012-14 (.77). It is also the highest-rated professional boxing broadcast since the ’98 De La Hoya show on FOX (4.29).
More than 575,000 minutes (576,435) of PBC on NBC coverage was live streamed via NBC Sports Live Extra to desktops, tablets and mobile devices – ranking as the third-best Saturday night this year behind the NFL Wild Card Playoff (Jan. 3, 2015) and the NHL Stadium Series game (Feb. 21, 2015).
The return of PBC on NBC will return from New York in a double header when Danny Garcia takes on Lamont Peterson and Andy Lee puts his title on the line against New Yorker Peter Quillin.
According to other numbers PBC on NBC beat out everything in the same time slot with the exception of the Duke-North Carolina game on Saturday.
