ESPN’s PGA Championship Coverage is Cable’s Most-Watched in 10 Years
|Aided by another strong final day of viewership, ESPN’s live coverage of the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco finished as the most-viewed edition of the event on cable since 2010, with younger viewers helping drive increases in several important demographics.
Sunday’s final round coverage, which aired from noon until 3 p.m. ET, averaged 1,965,000 viewers, up 60 percent over TNT’s final-round telecast from 2019 and the most-viewed final round on cable since 2010. Sunday’s telecast peaked at 2.4 million viewers and was above 2 million from 1:15 – 3 p.m.
Across all four rounds, ESPN averaged 1,659,000 viewers and 399,000 viewers in the ages 18-49 demographic, up 35 percent and 54 percent, respectively, from TNT’s coverage last year.
In addition to being the most-viewed PGA Championship on cable since 2010, ESPN’s average of ages 18-49 viewers was up 40 percent over the past five years.
Younger viewers helped drive the increases – viewership among adults ages 18-34 was up 76 percent from 2019 and this was the most-viewed version of the championship on cable in the demographic since 2009.
Top local markets for the final round telecast with metered market rating:
West Palm Beach | 2.6 |
Tampa – St. Petersburg | 2.4 |
Indianapolis | 2.4 |
Columbus | 2.3 |
Cleveland | 2.2 |
Greenville-Spartanburg | 2.0 |
Denver | 2.0 |
San Francisco | 2.0 |
Atlanta | 2.0 |
Orlando, Phoenix, Portland | 1.9 |
ESPN was in the first year of a new, 11-year deal to televise the PGA Championship, and was airing the event for the first time in 30 years
ESPN+ also featured extensive live streaming coverage throughout the day, including early coverage from 10 a.m. – noon and 11 hours of Featured Groups on two streams as well as a Featured Hole stream of the 18th hole.