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2009 US Open: More Fans in More Ways

FLUSHING, N.Y. — The USTA announced today that the 2009 US Open was experienced by more fans on-site, on television and online than ever before. Event attendance hit an all-time high, website traffic far surpassed last year’s records, and total television viewership was up, with more hours of the US Open broadcast than ever before.

Attendance:

• A new all-time attendance record of 721,059 fans topped last year’s record of 720,227.
• The first week of the tournament set five separate attendance records including top attended Opening Day session, top Opening Day combined sessions (day and night), top single session record, top combined (day and night) record and a record first-week attendance of 423,427.
• The US Open remains the highest-attended annual sporting event in the world.

USOpen.org:

• Unique visitors, from more than 200 countries, exceeded 13.5 million (the exact figure was 13,568,975), a 47% increase over last year’s previous record.
• Total visits to USOpen.org, the official website of the US Open, topped 63 million, far surpassing last year’s record of 39 million visits.
• Total page views increased from 222 million in 2008 to more than 392 million in 2009 (an increase of 76%).
• On-Demand Video, which includes match highlights, press conferences and feature programming, was accessed more than 5.6 million times, a 58% increase over last year.

Live Match Streaming on USOpen.org:

• There were nearly 14 million (13,891,115) activated streams on USOpen.org.
• More than 2.5 million hours of live streaming were viewed (2,531,236 hours).
• 157 matches were streamed live.
• The interactive media console to access live streaming was launched 3.8 million times over the course of the tournament.
• The average length of stay on the media console was two hours and forty-five minutes.

Television:

• With three domestic broadcasters (CBS, ESPN2, Tennis Channel), total television hours of the US Open were the most in history.
• Total viewership of CBS’ US Open broadcasts was 55.8 million, a 24% increase over 2008. 14.6 million viewers watched all or part of the men’s final.
• ESPN2’s first-ever coverage of the US Open was up 20% vs. 2008 US Open coverage on USA Network. ESPN2 posted its two most-watched tennis telecasts in its history on Wednesday, September 9, and Thursday, September 10.
• US Open coverage on Tennis Channel on Saturday, September 5, broke all previous ratings records for the network, and the network ranked within the Top 10 on all ad supported cable, including the No. 4 rank during the 8 pm to 9pm hour.

Posted on September 17, 2009
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