NEW YORK (AP) — NBC says 4.9 million viewers tuned in to watch U.S. English-language coverage Sunday of the 10 matches on the final day of the English Premier League season.
The total was up 172 percent from the previous high of 1.8 million for coverage on the last day of the 2011-12 season on ESPN2 and nine Fox networks. NBC said Tuesday the figures include anyone who watched at least 6 minutes.
The combined average viewership of the games on 10 NBCUniversal networks was 1.8 million, up 107 percent from 869,000 on the final day in 2011-12.
In data released Tuesday, NBC said 31.5 million viewers saw Premier League coverage on its networks this season, up from 13.3 million last year, when U.S. rights were shared by Fox and ESPN.
NBC and NBCSN averaged 438,000 viewers, up 99 percent from last season’s combined average of 220,000 on ESPN, ESPN2 and Fox Soccer.
The three most-watched games were on NBC: Cardiff-Swansea on Feb. 8 (1.24 million), Swansea-Manchester United on Jan. 11 (1.1 million) and Manchester United-Crystal Palace on Feb. 22 (1.06 million).
The top-rated market for NBC and NBCSN combined was Washington, D.C., followed by New York; Baltimore; Boston; Seattle; Richmond, Virginia; San Francisco-Oakland; Norfolk, Virginia; Providence, Rhode Island; Philadelphia; and Chicago.
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