Ratings Roundup: Linsanity Spreads North of Border; Golf Channel Shoots Best Round in Network History

Linsanity, Linomania, Linsurdity, Linecstacy, Linmadness, a Linderalla story – whatever you want to call it, it’s here. And it’s not just in New York. The Jeremy Lin phenomenon has even gone north of the border as 342,000 Canadians tuned into TSN for the Knicks’ thrilling 90-87 win over the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday. That marks the Toronto Raptors game marked the team’s most-watched game on TSN since April 2010.  It also delivered the highest average audience for any Raptors game since the 2009-10 NBA season. Audience levels peaked at 571,000 viewers at 9:36 p.m. ET when the Knicks’ point guard nailed the game-winning three-pointer in the final second.

As for the Knicks’ hometown, MSG Networks’ ratings have soared from 114,019 average households to 227,360 during the six-game winning streak, despite being caught up in a nasty carriage fee battle with Time Warner Cable. Time Warner is trying to minimize the damage, noting that five of the Knicks’ seven games will be available to its subscribers on ESPN, ABC, YES or TNT.

The Knicks online presence has also benefitted, with traffic last week to NYKnicks.com and The KKnicksNow.com up 550% over the previous week, while the team added 125,000 Facebook “likes” and 12,000 Twitter followers. Traffic to MSG.com was up 223%, and video views were up 600%…

…Golf Channel’s final round coverage of the Mickelson-Woods-fueled AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am on Sunday was the most-watched PGA Tour round in the 17-year history of the network, beating the previous mark by 25%. Golf Channel’s lead-in coverage on Sunday (1-2:30 p.m. ET) garnered a 2.1 household rating and 2,337,000 average viewers, which topped the same coverage in 2011 by 198% and eclipsed Day Three of the 2008 WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship (2.1/1,871,000), which held the previous viewership record. The coverage peaked at 2.9 just before the conclusion of the telecast. Sunday was also the highest-rated day day on Golf Channel year to date…

…Out-of-home viewership lifted this year’s Super Bowl audience by at least 20.7%, depending on the demographic, according to data collected by media-and-marketing-research firm Arbitron. For adults 18 to 49, out-of-home viewing delivered an audience lift of 25.4% over in-home-only viewing levels, according to Arbitron, which defines “lift” as the number of away-from-home viewers divided by the number of in-home viewers. Among adults over 18, Arbitron found that 11.9 million people watched the game from an “out-of-home” venue, usually someone else’s house. Arbitron found that out-of-home viewing provided a lift of 20.7% to the total audience of people 18 or older, a 31.2% lift to viewers between 18 and 34, and a 23% lift to viewers between 25 and 54…

…FOX Sports Southwest continues to ride the wave of the defending NBA champions, as the Dallas Maverics win over the Clippers on Monday scored the team’s highest ratings in five years. The game averaged a 4.5 household rating and 116,000 homes in Dallas-Fort Worth. It was the best rating for a Mavericks game on FOX Sports Southwest since a 6.2 on March 30, 2007 vs. the New York Knicks and topped this season’s best 4.3 rating on Jan. 25 against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Mavericks telecasts on FOX Sports Southwest this season are averaging a 2.8 rating, up 24% over last year at this point of the season…

…The Red Wings record-breaking 21st consecutive victory at home, an NHL record, was the most-watched game of the season on Fox Sports Detroit Plus. It garnered a 6.5 rating in Metro Detroit (119,000 households), peaking at 9.3 (172,000 households) in the third period. The game was carried live on FSD Plus, with the Pistons on the main channel. And it becomes the highest-rated telecast all-time on FSD Plus, including all sports, since the service became available for the 2007-08 NHL and NBA seasons, Bryant said. It was the highest-rated regular-season game on FSD or FSD Plus since April 1, 2010.