College Championships ESPNU Ratings Decline

No signs of audience growth.

For the second consecutive year, the College Championships finals were broadcast live on ESPNU on Memorial Day. After capturing the highest ratings since 2013 last year, the numbers regressed back to the unimpressive levels of the previous three years. Ultimate’s cable viewership has not made any ratings gains over the six years since USA Ultimate signed their ESPN3 contract.

Here’s a historical look at ultimate’s ratings (in thousands)1:

Show 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 (Live) 2018 (Live) Men's Final 86 18 41 45 70 41 Women's Final 58 61 38 41 49 46 Highlights 66 - 33 33 - -

It is worth noting that ultimate’s appearances on cable television (particularly the US Open final on ESPN2) do push the sport out to new viewers who would not be likely to tune in to an online-only broadcast. Some tiny percentage of households simply has their televisions tuned into ESPNU or ESPN2.

Still, there is no evidence from the annual ESPNU ratings that new fans are being drawn in to watching ultimate by having occasional games available on cable television.