Ratings Roundup: SEC Championship Game on CBS Is Highest Rated Game of the Season; YES Network Notches Best Nets Game Ever;

CBS Sports’ national coverage of the SEC Championship game on Dec. 1, which saw Alabama defeat Georgia, 32-28, delivered a 9.8/20 preliminary national average household rating/share, up 34% from last year (7.3/15; LSU-Georgia). The 9.8/20 for Alabama-Georgia is the highest rating for a college football game during the 2012 regular season (Notre Dame at USC – 9.4/16; 11/24/12; ABC). The 2012 SEC Championship averaged 16.2 million viewers, also making it the most-watched college football game of the 2012 regular-season (Notre Dame at USC; 16.1 million; 11/24/12; ABC). The Alabama-Georgia game rating peaked at 12.6/23 and 21.8 million viewers from 7:30-8:00 PM, ET.

The game capped off a  SEC ON CBS for the 2012 season is the highest-rated regular-season college football package on any network for the fourth consecutive season, averaging a preliminary national household rating/share of 3.9/9, topping second place ABC’s season average of 3.2/7 for college football. The package also boasted three of the five highest-rated and most-watched college football telecasts of the 2012 season:

• No. 1 – No. 2-ranked Alabama beating No. 3-ranked Georgia (9.8/20; 16.2 million viewers; 12/1/12)
• No. 3 – No. 1-ranked Alabama beating No. 5-ranked LSU (6.8/12; 11.4 million viewers; 11/3/12)
• No. 4 – No. 15-ranked Texas A&M beating No. 1-ranked Alabama (6.1/13; 9.6 million viewers; 11/10/12).

…YES Network notched its most-watched and highest-rated regular season Nets telecast ever with the team’s win over the Heat last Saturday, recording 158,000 average TV HHs, 2.15 average TV HH rating in the New York DMA. That eclipses YES’s February 29, 2004 Lakers-Nets telecast (139,000 average TV HHs, 1.89 average TV HH rating). The telecast was also the most-watched and highest-rated regular-season Nets telecast not featuring the Knicks on a New York RSN in almost 15 years.  On January 23, 1998, Fox Sports New York’s Nets-Bulls telecast averaged 186,000 TV HHs and a 2.80 average TV HH rating.

The YES Network has averaged a 1.0 TV HH rating for its Nets telecasts this season, vs. a .39 average TV HH rating for its 22 Nets telecasts through the end of January 2012 (January 2012 was YES’ first full month of Nets games last season, due to the NBA lockout).   This marks a 156% increase in average TV HH ratings.  YES’ Nets telecasts are also up 235% in Persons 25-54 and 200% in Males 25-54 during that same time period…

…Last Saturday night’s three-fight SHOWTIME CHAMPIONSHIP BOXING telecast, featuring a Miguel Cotto-Austin Trout main event, drew an average audience of 1.047 million viewers, the highest since 2004 when Nielsen began to separately measure premium television multiplex channels. The main event, Cotto vs. Trout, peaked at nearly 1.4 million viewers, the highest peak on record since 2009 when data on viewership for individual bouts first became available.