BTN Communications, March 16, 2021
The Big Ten Network's coverage of the 2021 Big Ten Men's Basketball Tournament presented by SoFi delivered record audiences, as it became the most-watched men's tournament in network history and included the most-watched men's basketball game in network history.
Across the entire tournament on BTN, the total audience grew by +14% to more than 5.2 million viewers and the average audience for each game grew by +15% to 528,220. The first-round average increased by +9% to 367,262, the second-round average increased by +11% to 464,051 and the Friday?s quarterfinals had an average audience of 667,272 viewers, representing an increase of +18%.
Driving the quarterfinal increase was Friday night's game between Iowa and Wisconsin, which earned 938,784 viewers, the highest-rated game in network history. That topped the previous high of 813,951 viewers for a 2018 Big Ten Tournament quarterfinal matchup between Ohio State vs. Penn State.
*DATA IS PROVIDED BY NIELSEN MEDIA RESEARCH. AUDIENCE GROWTH COMPARISONS ARE BASED OFF VIEWERSHIP DATA FROM 2019, AS THE 2020 BIG TEN MEN'S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT WAS CANCELED.
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