- ESPN’s 17 Hours of College Football Averages Nearly Two Million Viewers
- ESPN & ABC Posting Increases Over 2012
- ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 & ESPNU Televise Seven of Top Eight Prime-Time Games
- Millions Go to ESPN Mobile Offerings
- Indianapolis Top Market for Saturday Night Football – Notre Dame at Purdue
The September 14 ABC Saturday Night Football Presented by Windows telecast – Notre Dame over Purdue 31-24 – helped ABC win the night across all networks among households, viewers and in all key male and adult demographics (18-34, 18-49 and 25-54). The matchup averaged 4,789,000 viewers and a 3.0 rating. ABC also averaged 3,164,000 viewers and a 2.0 rating for its Saturday afternoon matchup of Oregon over Tennessee 52-14.
In addition to ABC, ESPN averaged a significant 1,917,000 viewers for more than 17 consecutive hours of college football studio and game content on Saturday – beginning at 9 a.m. ET with the three-hour College GameDay Built by The Home Depot to the last whistle of Wisconsin at Arizona State at 2:10 a.m.
Season Increases
Overall, ABC and ESPN have posted viewership increases over last year for college football game telecasts:
- ABC is averaging 4,793,000 viewers and a 3.0 rating in 2013 for increases of 10 percent (vs. 4,355,000) and 3 percent (vs. 2.9), respectively, over 2012. Note: The season average does not include the rating for ABC’s September 14, noon, telecast of UCLA beating Nebraska 41-21 which is not yet available
- ESPN has averaged 3,523,000 viewers and a 2.2 rating this season, marking increases of 23 percent (vs. 2,860,000) and 16 percent (vs. 1.9), respectively, over last season.
Seven of Top Eight Night Games on ESPN Networks
ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU televised seven of the top eight most-viewed college football night games across Thursday, Friday and Saturday, led by the ABC Saturday Night Football telecast (4,789,000 viewers). Highlights:
- ESPN televised a Saturday prime-time doubleheader, averaging 2,529,000 viewers for Arizona State’s 32-30 victory over Wisconsin in the late window and 1,884,000 viewers for South Carolina’s 35-25 win over Vanderbilt matchup at 7 p.m.
- In addition to Saturday night, ESPN averaged an impressive 2,277,000 viewers for its Thursday night telecast of Texas Tech defeating TCU 20-10.
- ESPN2 and ESPNU each generated strong audiences for Saturday prime-time telecasts. ESPN2 averaged 1,860,000 viewers for Auburn’s 24-20 win over Mississippi State while ESPNU averaged 601,000 viewers for LSU’s 45-13 victory over Kent State.
Saturday Night Football Metered Market Ratings
Indianapolis was the highest-rated metered market for the ABC Saturday Night Football telecast of Notre Dame at Purdue, averaging a 14.3 rating. Chicago was second with a 6.2 rating followed by Oklahoma City (5.2), Cincinnati (4.8), Detroit (4.5), West Palm Beach (4.4), Greenville (4.2), Richmond (4.2), Atlanta (4.2) and Nashville (4.2).
ESPN Digital Platforms Continue to Post Growth
ESPN Digital Media’s college football content across all platforms – ESPN.com (homepage and college football section), the ESPN Mobile Web college football section, ESPN’s ScoreCenter app College Football card, WatchESPN/ESPN3 and the ESPN College Football app – continued significant growth in Week 3, generating an average audience of 252,000 on Saturday, an increase of 8 percent over 2012.
On Saturday, more than 6,900,000 fans accessed the ScoreCenter app with an average minute audience of 116,000 (up 20 percent and 82 percent over 2012, respectively). ESPN’s College Football app reached more than 1,300,000 unique visitors with an average minute audience of more than 12,000 (up 49 percent and 45 percent over 2012, respectively).
Also on Saturday, video starts of college football content on ESPN.com totaled more 3,500,000, up 45 percent over last year.
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