Turner Sports’ live telecast of a charity golf tournament featuring Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning scored big ratings numbers, continuing a trend of strong showings for the return of live sports events amid the pandemic.

The May 24 The Match: Champions for Charity drew 5.8 million viewers across TNT, TBS, truTV and HLN, according to Nielsen. The event, which generated $20 million for COVID-19 relief efforts, was the most-watched golf telecast in cable TV history, according to Turner.

The Match was one of a small-but-growing number of live sports events that have taken place since the pandemic forced the shutdown of most events in mid-March. Most have brought a large following of fans to TV screens.

Fox Sports has averaged nearly 4 million viewers for its first three live NASCAR telecasts, led by its first telecast since the pandemic broke out. The May 17 race at Darlington drew 6.3 million viewers on Fox — the second-best race performance this season for Fox Sports, according to Nielsen.

ESPN has pinned down some impressive numbers for its live UFC telecasts. The sports network averaged more than 1.2 million viewers for the main card of UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs. Harris on May 16 after generating a reported 700,000 pay-per-view buys on ESPN Plus for UFC 249 on May 9.

With most live sports sidelined since
March due to the coronavirus outbreak, industry observers say sports fans have been salivating for live sports events, whether or not they were big fans of the sport being televised.

“The audience for televised sports is not going away. If anything it’s getting larger and perhaps more passionate because they miss what they haven’t been able to see during the past few months,” sports analyst Lee Berke said.

More sports are making their way back to television, sans live audiences: pro bowling, auto racing events and a potential boxing match are on deck for June, with plans announced for the National Hockey League to conduct a Stanley Cup Playoffs tournament and Major League Baseball negotiating with the players about starting a shortened season. Berke said demand for live sports events will only increase.

“You can’t go out to games, you can’t go out to shows, you can’t go to the movies, so the audience is starving for live events and content,” he said. “If sports can be brought back safely there’s a ready-made, large audience ready to watch.” 

B&C has partnered with always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company iSpot.tv to bring you a weekly chart we call Promo Mojo: exclusive data showing the top five TV promos ranked by ad impressions. This is the programming the networks have been promoting most heavily to drive tune-in (our data covers the seven-day period through May 24).

On the strength of 293.6 million TV ad impressions, a promo for TNT’s The Match: Champions for Charity is No. 1 (the golf special was also simulcast on TBS, TruTV and HLN). Cable networks dominate our top 5, with TNT joined by Nickelodeon, which hypes its Wild About Movies family film night in second place, and National Geographic and Discovery, which promote, respectively, Barkskins and All on the Line in fourth and fifth.

Meanwhile, NBC, the sole traditional broadcaster in our mix, grabs third place for The Titan Games. 

Notably, the Nickelodeon promo has the highest iSpot Attention Index (146) in our ranking, getting 46% fewer interruptions than the average promo (interruptions include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV).

1) The Match: Champions for Charity, TNT

Impressions: 293,558,538

Attention Score: 94.84

Attention Index: 115 (15% fewer interruptions than avg.)

Imp. Types: National 93%, Local 6%, VOD/OTT 1%

In-network Value: $2,097,133

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $102,767

2) Wild About Movies, Nickelodeon

Impressions: 278,171,303

Attention Score: 96.74

Attention Index: 146 (46% fewer interruptions than avg.)

Imp. Types: National 97%, Local 2%, VOD/OTT 1%

In-network Value: $7,513,393

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

3) The Titan Games, NBC

Impressions: 262,381,313

Attention Score: 89.24

Attention Index: 57 (43% more interruptions than avg.)

Imp. Types: National 85%, Local 14%, VOD/OTT 1%

In-network Value: $3,591,382

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $779,720

4) Barkskins, National Geographic

Impressions: 246,738,072

Attention Score: 93.26

Attention Index: 90 (10% more interruptions than avg.)

Imp. Types: National 88%, Local 10%, VOD/OTT 2%

In-network Value: $2,446,204

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $701,059

5) All on the Line, Discovery Channel

Impressions: 229,228,279

Attention Score: 94.19

Attention Index: 105 (5% fewer interruptions than avg.)

Imp. Types: National 99%, Local 1%, VOD/OTT 0%

In-network Value: $1,104,549

Out-of-network Est. Spend: $0.00

*Data provided by iSpot.tv, TV Ad Measurement for Disruptive Brands*

Impressions - The total impressions within all US households including National Linear (Live & Time-shifted), VOD+OTT, and Local.

Attention Score - Measures the propensity of consumers to interrupt an ad play on TV. The higher the score, the more complete views. Actions that interrupt an ad play include changing the channel, pulling up the guide, fast-forwarding or turning off the TV.

Attention Index - Represents the Attention of a specific creative or program placement vs. the average in its respective industry. The average is represented by a score of 100, and the total index range is from 0 through 200. For example, an attention index of 125 means that there are 25% fewer interrupted ad plays compared to the average.

Imp. Types - Impression types tracked include National (Live + Time-shifted), Local, VOD & OTT. See below for further details.

In-network Value - Estimated media value of in-network promos.

Out-of-network Spend - The estimated amount spent on TV airing time for this promo's spots during a given date range.

National: Live - A national promo which was viewed during live linear television broadcast or same day, via DVR or on-demand.

Local - A promo that was aired during a local ad break slot.

VOD - This includes promos that run in on-demand content past three days (i.e. do not contain the linear promo load)

OTT - On-demand streaming content (i.e. Hulu, Roku, Fire TV Stick, Chromecast).