Belmont Stakes television rating up 12 percent

The final rating for the race portion of the Belmont Stakes broadcast on NBC on Saturday was a 4.8 with an 11 share, according to the network. The rating was up 12 percent compared to a 4.3 rating for the race portion of last year’s broadcast, and the share this year was up 10 percent compared to last year’s broadcast.

The race portion of the broadcast had a “viewership” figure of 7.67 million, according to NBC, the highest total for a Belmont broadcast when a Triple Crown was not at stake since 2005, when the viewership figure was 7.71 million. Last year, the viewership figure was 6.84 million, and in 2010, when the Belmont was broadcast on ABC, the figure was 4.74 million.

The 4.8 rating was the highest for the race portion of a non-Triple Crown Belmont Stakes since 2005, the network said. Each rating point translates to approximately one million households. Share is the percentage of televisions in use at the time that are tuned to a specific broadcast.

All three races of the Triple Crown this year were broadcast on NBC. The network said that the average viewership for each race was 10.34 million viewers, up 2 percent over last year’s average.