US Open draws record ratings on FOX

DetailsMichelle Clancy | 22 June 2015




The 115th US Open Championship drew its largest opening-round viewership in over a decade this weekend.


FOX Sports' inaugural presentation of the golf classic, this year held at Chambers Bay, began Thursday with a combined 11 hours of live golf coverage on FOX Sports 1 and local FOX stations. The two networks combined for an audience that averaged 2 million viewers, making it the most-watched opening round since the 2002 US Open at Bethpage Black, an event that ultimately saw Tiger Woods edge runner-up Phil Mickelson by three strokes to win his second US Open title.

Audience deliveries showed impressive gains on both networks as fans tuned in to watch the opening-round coverage of golf's most challenging major.

Viewership on FOX peaked with 3.5 million viewers. The average viewership marked a 54% increase over 2014's opening-round coverage on NBC and ESPN (2 million vs. 1.3 million).

Primetime coverage on local FOX stations averaged 3 million viewers, a 100% increase over NBC's broadcast coverage in 2014 (1.5 million viewers), which earned it a 1.9/4 rating that was also +46% better than NBC last year (1.4/4).

FOX Sports 1 averaged 1.5 million viewers throughout the day, a 25% increase over ESPN's delivery in 2014. Viewership on FOX Sports 1 peaked at 2.1 million viewers, following the start of Woods' opening round.

On the digital front, the number of official US Open live streams accessed during opening-round action were more than double the total combined number measured over the entire four-day championship in 2014. Fox Sports GO, USOpen.com and the US Open official app currently offer multiple channels of live coverage, including featured groups, featured holes and US Open 360.