ESPN's Thursday Masters Viewership, Ratings Rise

ESPN's live telecast of the first round of the 2012 Masters Tournament on Thursday, April 5, averaged 2,661,000 viewers with a 2.3 household coverage rating based on fast nationals, according to the Nielsen Company.

The rating was an increase of 10 percent from last year's first round, which earned a 2.1 rating. Viewership was up four percent over last year's 2,550,000 average.

Across ESPN digital platforms - including ESPN.com, the ESPN mobile Web and ScoreCenter - the first round of the Masters generated an average of 50,600 people using one of those properties at any given minute of the day, up 35 percent compared to the previous year (source: Adobe/Omniture). Daily unique visitors to the Golf index page on ESPN.com were up 10 percent, while total minutes to the page were up 53 percent. Additionally, daily unique visitors to Golf content on the mobile Web were up 67 percent.

While ESPN's live Masters coverage ends Friday, the ESPN 3D Network will have live telecasts of the final two rounds of the event on Saturday and Sunday from 4-7 p.m. ET each day. In addition, SportsCenter will continue to report from the Masters throughout the weekend.