The boffo TV ratings recorded in the NCAA’s National Beach Volleyball Championship final Sunday afternoon on ESPN should validate to the NCAA’s cable TV partner that the women’s sand game does indeed deserve prime placement on its flagship channel.
The tense title dual between red-hot rivals USC and UCLA, won by the Women of Troy 3-2 for a three-peat when their 3s pair prevailed in a third set, rang up a whopping 208% increase in total-average viewership over the 2022 final on ESPN2 between USC and Florida State, with 380,000 tuning in compared to 123,000 last year.
The demographic that advertisers (and thus TV networks) most covet is the 18-49 age group. In the prime demo, the final on Sunday posted a 300% jump over 2022, rising to a .12 rating from a .03.
The final climbed to 36th on the day on the highly influential Showbuzz cable TV chart that tracks performance in the 18-49 demo, up from 113th the previous year (full chart below). In 2021, the most-watched dual of the NCAAs was the semifinal between UCLA and Loyola Marymount. With 189,000 viewers and a .07 18-49 rating, it finished 101st on the Showbuzz chart, and the final between USC and…
