- ESPN2’s Most-Viewed Game of Season: South Carolina-Missouri
- ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 & ESPNU Increases Over 2012
- Millions Go to ESPN Mobile Offerings
- Top 10 Metered Market Ratings for ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 Saturday Night Games
The ABC Saturday Night Football Presented by Windows telecast of Ohio State defeating Penn State 63-14 on October 26 was the most-viewed college football game of the week across all cable and broadcast networks. The matchup between Big Ten rivals averaged 4,059,000 viewers and a 2.5 HH US rating.
Additional games on ESPN, ABC, ESPN2 and ESPNU garnered large audiences as well. Highlights:
- ESPN2 televised its most-viewed game of the 2013 season on Saturday, averaging 3,051,000 viewers and a 1.8 HH US rating for South Carolina’s 27-24 win against Missouri. It’s also ESPN2’s most-viewed regular-season college football game since Sept. 9, 2012 (Georgia at Missouri averaged 4,119,000 viewers and a 2.4 HH US rating).
- ABC averaged 3,330,000 viewers and a 2.2 HH US rating for the Saturday 3:30 p.m. ET split-national coverage of Florida State defeating NC State 49-17 and Michigan State beating Illinois 42-3.
- ESPN’s Saturday prime-time telecast of Oregon beating UCLA 42-14 was the network’s most-viewed game of the four it televised that day, generating 3,674,000 viewers and a 2.3 HH US rating. The noon matchup – a 32-23 Minnesota victory over Nebraska – was the second highest, averaging 3,128,000 viewers and a 2.0 HH US rating.
- ESPNU televised its fourth most-viewed college football game of the season on Saturday, averaging 885,000 viewers for the noon coverage of Miami defeating Wake Forest 27-24.
Season Increases for ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU
Through week nine, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU are posting larger viewership for college football game telecasts over last season at the same point:
- ABC is averaging 4,654,000 viewers for a 2 percent increase (vs. 4,563,000).
- ESPN is averaging 2,824,000 viewers for a 7 percent increase (vs. 2,644,000).
- ESPN2 is averaging 1,217,000 viewers for a 9 percent increase (vs. 1,117,000).
- ESPNU is averaging 456,000 viewers for a 1 percent increase (vs. 453,000).
Top 10 Metered Markets for ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 Saturday Night Games
The top four markets for ABC’s Saturday night coverage of Penn State at Ohio State were located in the state of Ohio, led by Columbus with a 38.0 metered market rating. Dayton was second with a 19.5 followed by Cleveland (16.9) and Cincinnati (6.5). The top 10 was rounded out by Pittsburgh (4.5), Ft. Myers (3.5), Philadelphia (3.2), Orlando (3.2), West Palm Beach (3.2), Detroit (3.1) and Jacksonville (3.0).
Portland, averaging an 18.3 metered market rating, was the top market for ESPN’s UCLA at Oregon telecast. Birmingham was second with a 7.9 rating followed by Seattle (6.7), Los Angeles (5.6), Louisville (5.2), Las Vegas (4.4), Greenville (4.4), Knoxville (4.0), Jacksonville (3.7) and Norfolk (3.7).
Greenville was the top market for ESPN2’s Saturday night South Carolina at Missouri telecast, averaging a 13.3 metered market rating. Kansas City was second with an 11.0 rating followed by Birmingham (10.8), Knoxville (8.7), Jacksonville (6.5), Charlotte (6.4), St. Louis (5.3), Nashville (5.2), Atlanta (4.9) and New Orleans (4.0).
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, ESPNScoreCenter app’s the lead and college football card, WatchESPN/ESPN3 and the ESPN College Football app — saw continued growth in Week 9, generating an average audience of nearly 250,000 on Saturday, an increase of 4 percent over 2012.
On Saturday, more than 6,500,000 fans accessed the ScoreCenter app for the second week in a row, with an average minute audience of more than 101,000 (up 9 percent and 63 percent over 2012, respectively).
Tuesday through Saturday, live college football games on WatchESPN and ESPN3 had nearly 51,000,000 live minutes viewed, up 70 percent over 2012.
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