Husky Women’s Basketball a Major Hit on SNY

UConn women's basketball has scored record-braking ratings in SNY's
Connecticut and metro-New York markets this season.

Bob Phillips with Staff Reports

NEW YORK-Thanks to SNY, the UConn women’s basketball team has become “Metro-New York’s Team.” SNY, perhaps best known as home as the television home of the New York Mets, enjoyed double-digit ratings increases in the Hartford-New Haven market for all of the network’s UConn women’s basketball programming—the highest total viewership in that market since the 2012-13 season.

Live broadcasts of Huskies women hoops on SNY averaged a 6.00 household rating in Hartford-New Haven, a 21 percent increase over the 2015-2016 season, and a 7 percent over the average for the previous seasons combined. The live game performance was SNY’s highest of the last four seasons. 
But the popularity of all things Husky women’s basketball went far beyond live game telecasts.

SNY’s pre- and post-game shows also experienced huge gains in Connecticut. The UConn Women’s Basketball Pre-Game Show delivered a 1.80 household rating, while the postgame show had a 2.85 rating. These figures represent a 15 percent and 34 percent increase over the past year, respectively. The results are the top performances for the pre-game since 2013-2014 and post-game since 2012-2013.

In addition, the Geno Auriemma Show has set high watermarks through its first nine telecasts in 2016-2017, becoming the most watched season-to-date series in the program’s five year history. The series is averaging a 1.63 household rating in Hartford-New Haven, a 63 percent bump over the 2015-2016 full 11-episode run and 60 percent growth over the series’ five-year average-to-date.

The popularity of UConn women’s basketball wasn’t limited to the primary Connecticut markets, either. Live game viewership on SNY soared in New York, reaching a record=breaking level.  For the season, UConn women’s basketball averaged a 0.42 household rating, shattering the previous high mark set last season. The strong ratings were fueled by a remarkable run from, Feb. 1 through Feb. 25. During this period, representing most of the month of February, UConn women’s basketball delivered its five highest ratings performances of all-time in the New York metro area (which includes Fairfield County Connecticut). The streak culminated during SNY’s final broadcast featuring Memphis-UConn, delivering the network’s best=ever rating in metro-New York with a .77 household rating.