ESPN's Coverage of U.S. OPEN Up 58% Year-to-Year in Viewers

After three days of the first all-ESPN US Open, ESPN's TV audience is up 58% from a year ago, averaging 853,000 viewers (P2+), up from 540,000 in 2014. The corresponding household rating is up 50%, from 0.4 to 0.6.

Younger viewers are leading the charge. The rating among viewers 18-34 and 18-49 - as well as among men 18-34 and men 18-49 - is double last year's. In addition, the rating among viewers 55+ is up 50%.

The audience following the US Open on WatchESPN - the linear TV presentation plus ESPN3's offering of up to 11 courts and other content - has more than tripled. After three days, 64.8 million live minutes have been viewed, an increase of 224 percent from 2014. On the average day, 273,000 unique devices have watched the US Open (up 145 percent), averaging 78 minutes each (up 38 percent).

Wednesday ranks at the second best day for a tennis Major on WatchESPN/ESPN with 23.7 million minutes viewed, behind only the 2015 Wimbledon Gentlemen's Championship. The most-watched single feed so far was Wednesday's play on Armstrong Stadium - 114,000 viewers accounting for 5.5 million live minutes.

On Friday, Sept. 4, ESPN will cover the action at the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center starting at 1 p.m. ET, transitioning to ESPN2 at 6 p.m. In addition, starting at 11 a.m. ESPN3 will offer up to 11 courts plus a Spanish feed and a feed with three boxes - action from Ashe, Armstrong and Grandstand - all day long to mobile devices and streaming on TVs. ESPN's extensive daily coverage will continue through the Women's Championship on Saturday, Sept. 12, and the Men's Championship on Sunday, Sept. 13, both on ESPN.

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