or


[12/10/14 - 10:02 AM]
ESPN's Record-Setting College Football Coverage Garners Millions of Viewers
ESPN spins the numbers for its coverage to date this season.
[via press release from ESPN]

ESPN's Record-Setting College Football Coverage Garners Millions of Viewers

· ESPN's FBS Telecasts Reach Nearly 200 Million Viewers; WatchESPN Generates More than 1.2 Billion Live Minutes Viewed

· ABC Saturday Night Football Most-Viewed Weekly Prime Series

· Significant Viewership Increases for ESPN on Saturday Nights

· ESPN and ABC Win on Saturday Nights

· Iron Bowl - Record Regular-Season Telecast for ESPN and WatchESPN; Season's Most-Viewed Game on TV

· Birmingham Leads All Markets for 14th Straight Year with 9.2 Metered Market Rating

ESPN's 2014 regular-season college football schedule set an industry record for total game coverage, reaching hundreds of millions of fans across multiple television and digital platforms.

Overall, ESPN, ABC, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNEWS, ESPN3, SEC Network and Longhorn Network covered 453 exclusive regular-season Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) games involving teams from all 10 conferences, plus independents Notre Dame, BYU, Navy and Army. Combined with an extensive schedule of Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) contests, ESPN platforms carried 494 regular-season Division I football games in 2014. Total coverage highlights:

· ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNEWS combined to televise 272 FBS contests, reaching more than 185,687,000 viewers. If those viewers who watched college football games on an ESPN platform formed a country, it would be the seventh most populous in the world, larger than countries such as Russia, Japan, Mexico, Germany, France, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain and Canada.

· The 272 telecasts averaged 1,767,000 viewers (note: the final audience for ABC's December 6, noon broadcast was not available). ESPN offered games every day of the week, including the opening Sunday of the season, Labor Day, select Tuesday and Wednesday matchups, and a regular schedule of Thursday, Friday and Saturday telecasts.

· The 517 FBS games on WatchESPN - every exclusive contest on an ESPN platform and the GamePlan matchups -- generated 1,200,000,000 live minutes viewed, an 80 percent increase over 2013. Overall, 2014 produced WatchESPN's 10 largest average minute audiences for regular-season college football games ever.

ABC Audience Growth Led by Most-Viewed Weekly Prime Series Saturday Night Football

The weekly series, Saturday Night Football on ABC - the most-viewed and highest-rated weekly college football night game on television - led the network to post a total-season viewership increase over 2013. The 34 windows on ABC averaged 5,106,000 viewers and a 3.2 rating for 7 percent increases in each (vs. 4,778,000 and vs. 3.0) (note: viewership data for ABC's Saturday, Dec. 6, noon telecast was not available at time of release). The weekly prime-time series that features multiple conferences throughout the season also experienced significant audience growth, averaging 6,197,000 viewers and a 3.8 rating for increases of 8 percent (vs. 5,750,000) and 9 percent (vs. 3.5), respectively.

Significant Viewership Increases for ESPN Saturday Nights

In addition to the weekly ABC telecast, ESPN's Saturday night games generated larger audiences than 2013, averaging 4,397,000 viewers for a 24 percent increase (vs. 3,557,000).

Winning Saturday Nights

Saturday night college football telecasts helped ESPN and ABC to finish first or second for the night across all cable and broadcast networks among total viewers on 14 of the season's 15 Saturdays. An ESPN or ABC Saturday prime-time game was the night's most-viewed college football game across all networks televising the sport on 12 of the 15 weeks.

ABC or ESPN was the number one or two network among all key male and adult demographics (18-34, 18-49 and 25-54) every Saturday night except September 6.

Iron Bowl - Record Regular-Season Telecast for ESPN and WatchESPN; Season's Most-Viewed Game on TV

ESPN's Saturday prime time coverage of Alabama's victory over Auburn on November 29 delivered the season's most-viewed game across all networks televising college football and generated television and digital audience records for ESPN and WatchESPN. ESPN's telecast averaged 13,529,000 viewers and a 7.4 rating, making it the network's most-viewed regular-season college football game on record (since 1990), surpassing USC at Ohio State in 2009 (10,586,000 viewers and a 6.3 HH US rating).

The game also garnered 475,000 unique viewers and an average minute audience of 119,000 people on WatchESPN, product records for regular-season action.

Birmingham Leads All Markets for 14th Straight Year with 9.2 Metered Market Rating

Birmingham was the number one metered market for ESPN's college football game telecasts for a 14th consecutive season, averaging a 9.2 rating for ESPN's 74 telecasts. The season was highlighted by a 51.8 rating in Birmingham for the Auburn at Alabama contest, the highest rating for an ESPN regular-season college football game in the market on record (since 2000).

The top four most-viewed metered markets for ESPN's game telecasts in 2013 remained among the top three in 2014: New Orleans at second (4.2 rating) followed by Knoxville and Greenville tied at third (4.1 rating). Three markets that jumped into the top 25 for the season, highlighted by Salt Lake City jumping from 38th to 13th with a 2.6 rating. Portland and Phoenix went from being tied at 27th to 17th (2.4 rating) and 25th (2.1 rating), respectively.

Top 25 Markets for 2014 Top 25 Markets for 2013
No. 1 Birmingham: 9.2 rating No. 1 Birmingham: 9.2 rating
No. 2 New Orleans: 4.2 rating No. 2 Greenville: 4.9 rating
No. 3 Knoxville: 4.1 rating No. 3 Knoxville: 4.4 rating
Greenville: 4.1 rating No. 4 New Orleans: 4.3 rating
No. 5 Memphis: 3.8 rating No. 5 Nashville: 3.3 rating
Atlanta: 3.8 rating Memphis: 3.3 rating
No. 7 Jacksonville: 3.5 rating Columbus: 3.3 rating
No. 8 Oklahoma City: 3.4 rating Jacksonville: 3.3 rating
No. 9 Tulsa: 3.1 rating No. 9 Louisville: 3.2 rating
No. 10 Nashville: 2.9 rating Atlanta: 3.2 rating
Columbus: 2.9 rating No. 11 Charlotte: 2.9 rating
No. 12 Louisville: 2.7 rating No. 12 Oklahoma City: 2.8 rating
No. 13 Richmond: 2.6 rating No. 13 Orlando: 2.7 rating
Salt Lake City: 2.6 rating No. 14 Tulsa: 2.6 rating
No. 15 Charlotte: 2.5 rating Tampa-St. Petersburg: 2.6 rating
Austin: 2.5 rating No. 16 Austin: 2.5 rating
No. 17 Portland: 2.4 rating West Palm Beach: 2.5 rating
Orlando: 2.4 rating No. 18 Kansas City: 2.4 rating
Las Vegas: 2.4 rating Norfolk: 2.4 rating
West Palm Beach: 2.4 rating No. 20 Dayton: 2.3 rating
No. 21 Norfolk: 2.3 rating No. 21 Greensboro: 2.2 rating
Dayton: 2.3 rating No. 22 Raleigh-Durham: 2.2 rating
Greensboro: 2.3 rating Richmond: 2.2 rating
No. 24 Raleigh-Durham: 2.2 rating No. 24 Ft. Myers: 2.1 rating
No. 25 Tampa-St. Petersburg: 2.1 rating No. 25 Dallas-Ft. Worth: 2.0 rating
Phoenix: 2.1 rating Las Vegas: 2.0 rating





  [december 2014]  
S
M
T
W
T
F
S
 


· SATURDAY NIGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL (ABC)
· THURSDAY NIGHT COLLEGE FOOTBALL (ESPN)




most recent ratings | view all posts
[08/26/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of August 18: "KPop Demon Hunters" Reigns as Netflix's Most Popular Film, Claims No. 1 in Top 10
"Wednesday" stayed on top of the English TV list for a third week with Wednesday Season 2, Part 1 claiming another 13.4 million views.
[08/26/25 - 08:24 AM]
"Sunday Night Baseball Presented by Capital One": Boston Red Sox vs. New York Yankees Draws ESPN's Second-Largest Audience of MLB Season: 2,572,000 Viewers
The game peaked with 2,889,000 viewers at 8:15 p.m. ET, according to Nielsen.

[08/20/25 - 11:07 AM]
Alicia Silverstone-Led Crime Drama "Irish Blood" Is the Biggest New Series Premiere in Acorn TV History
The August 11 premiere also drove the biggest day of subscriber sign-ups on Acorn TV's direct-to-consumer platforms in nearly two years.
[08/19/25 - 04:03 PM]
FX's "Alien: Earth" Premiere Episode Launches with 9.2 Million Views Globally After Six Days of Streaming
Future episodes of the eight-episode season will premiere each following Tuesday on Hulu beginning at 8 p.m. ET and on FX at 8 p.m. ET/PT.
[08/19/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of August 11: "Wednesday" Charms at No. 1 For Another Top 10 Week
"Fit for TV: The Reality of the Biggest Loser," a three-part documentary exploring the reality show's biggest scandals, debuted at No. 2 in English TV with 7.5 million views.
[08/19/25 - 10:13 AM]
NBC Sports Delivers Most-Watched Premier League Opening Weekend in U.S., Headlined by Record-Setting Manchester United-Arsenal Match on NBC & Peacock
The Manchester United-Arsenal match on NBC, Peacock, and NBC Sports Digital platforms on Sunday, featuring 2024-25 PL runner-up Arsenal earning a 1-0 victory, averaged 2.0 million viewers.
[08/19/25 - 09:03 AM]
FOX Sports Delivers Network's Most-Watched NFL Preseason Game Since 2021
This past Sunday, 5.1 million viewers tuned in to FOX's preseason coverage of the Chicago Bears 38-0 victory over the Buffalo Bills.
[08/14/25 - 01:33 PM]
With 5 Million Cross-Platform U.S. Viewers in Its First Three Days, Sunday's Season Finale Episode of "The Gilded Age" Is the Fifth Consecutive Episode to Clinch a Series High
This season is well on track to become the most watched of the series.
[08/12/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of August 4: "Wednesday" Wins the Week - Season 2 Snaps Its Way to No. 1 in Top 10
Like the view from the top of El Capitan, "Untamed" held its place among the metaphorical clouds of the English TV List, now in the No. 3 spot with 7.2 million views.

[08/12/25 - 07:44 AM]
August 10 Edition of ESPN "Sunday Night Baseball Presented by Capital One" Draws Nearly Two Million Viewers for Chicago Cubs vs. St. Louis Cardinals Game
The audience peaked with 2,115,000 viewers at 9:15 p.m. ET.
[08/08/25 - 09:10 AM]
"Live with Kelly and Mark" Notches Summertime Win with Best Total Viewer Audience in Over Three Months
In addition, the show earned its best rating among Households in nine weeks and its best numbers among both Women 18-49 and Women 25-54 in five weeks.
[08/05/25 - 12:01 PM]
Netflix Top 10 Week of July 28: "Happy Gilmore 2" Continues to Swing Big at No. 1 in This Week's Top 10
The Yosemite National Park-set thriller "Untamed" maintained the No. 1 spot on the English TV List for a third week with another 12.2 million views added to its accumulated 59.6 million total.
[08/05/25 - 11:01 AM]
ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" Featuring the Detroit Tigers vs. Philadelphia Phillies Averaged 2 Million Viewers - Up 72% from Last Year's Comparable Game
"Sunday Night Baseball" is averaging 1,680,000 million viewers, up seven percent from last year.

[08/05/25 - 10:27 AM]
ABC Airs One of Its Most-Watched WNBA Games This Season
The Indiana Fever's win over the Seattle Storm averaged 1.6 million viewers, peaking with 2.0 million.
[08/01/25 - 01:56 PM]
Matt Damon and Ken Jennings' Million Dollar Win Scores Big in Ratings for "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire"
The series owns ABC's top two entertainment telecasts in Total Viewers summer to date with its week 2 episode (4.46 million) and season premiere (4.24 million).