Rating dips, share flat for Kentucky Derby telecast
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The final hour of the NBC broadcast of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday evening drew a 6.9 rating with a 24 share, according to the network, while drawing the largest audience for a sports broadcast since the Super Bowl.
The rating was a 10.4 percent decline from last year’s rating of 7.7, but the share was identical to last year. Share measures the percentage of televisions in use that are tuned to a broadcast.
According to NBC, the Total Audience Delivery, a metric that includes streaming views, was an average of 14.8 million viewers. Viewership peaked at 16.6 million viewers while the race, won by Mage, was being run.
The Derby is annually one of the most-watched sports broadcasts. Since the Super Bowl, only the Academy Awards broadcast has drawn a higher number of viewers, NBC said.
The broadcast had a 26.6 rating and 65 share in Louisville, tops among local markets.
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