Record Numbers on WatchESPN
ESPN’s Big Monday matchup – featuring top-ranked Kansas’ triple-overtime victory vs. No. 2 Oklahoma on January 5 – delivered a 1.9 overnight rating, making it the highest-rated Big Monday Big 12 game on ESPN (records date back to 2002). It is also ESPN’s second-highest rated Monday night men’s college basketball game on record behind the Pittsburgh vs. Connecticut game (2.0 HH / February 16, 2009).
The No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 2 Oklahoma matchup was the most viewed men’s college basketball game ever on WatchESPN in both unique visitors (295,000) and total minutes viewed (11.6 million), and the second highest in average minute audience (66,000) behind the Kentucky-Duke Champions Classic game from earlier this season (November 17, 2015).
Kansas City Market Collects Highest Overnight Rating
Kansas City gathered the highest-rated market for the Kansas-Oklahoma matchup, bringing in a 16.8 overnight rating, followed by Oklahoma City (10.7); Tulsa (8.6); Louisville (5.6); Raleigh-Durham (4.4); Las Vegas (3.9); Albuquerque (3.8); Greensboro (3.4); Dallas-Fort Worth (2.8) and Greenville (2.5).
2015-16 Storylines
The overnight rating was the second highest of the 2015-16 men’s college basketball season across all ESPN networks – topping previous high of 2.2 for the Kentucky vs. Duke tilt at the State Champions Classic from this season.
