ESPN’s PGA Championship Coverage is Cable’s Most-Watched in 10 Years

Aided by another strong final day of viewership, ESPN’s live coverage of the PGA Championship at TPC Harding Park in San Francisco finished as the most-viewed edition of the event on cable since 2010, with younger viewers helping drive increases in several important demographics.

Sunday’s final round coverage, which aired from noon until 3 p.m. ET, averaged 1,965,000 viewers, up 60 percent over TNT’s final-round telecast from 2019 and the most-viewed final round on cable since 2010. Sunday’s telecast peaked at 2.4 million viewers and was above 2 million from 1:15 – 3 p.m.

Across all four rounds, ESPN averaged 1,659,000 viewers and 399,000 viewers in the ages 18-49 demographic, up 35 percent and 54 percent, respectively, from TNT’s coverage last year. In addition to being the most-viewed PGA Championship on cable since 2010, ESPN’s average of ages 18-49 viewers was up 40 percent over the past five years.

Younger viewers helped drive the increases – viewership among adults ages 18-34 was up 76 percent from 2019 and this was the most-viewed version of the championship on cable in the demographic since 2009.

Top local markets for the final round telecast with metered market rating:

West Palm Beach  - 2.6

Tampa – St. Petersburg  - 2.4

Indianapolis  - 2.4

Columbus  - 2.3

Cleveland - 2.2

Greenville-Spartanburg - 2.0

Denver - 2.0

San Francisco - 2.0

Atlanta - 2.0

Orlando, Phoenix, Portland - 1.9

ESPN was in the first year of a new, 11-year deal to televise the PGA Championship, and was airing the event for the first time in 30 years

ESPN+ also featured extensive live streaming coverage throughout the day, including early coverage from 10 a.m. – noon and 11 hours of Featured Groups on two streams as well as a Featured Hole stream of the 18^th hole.