• ESPN/ABC: Nearly 60 Billion Minutes of College Football Games Viewed

ESPN’s industry-leading college football schedule has resulted in ESPN’s networks being the most watched by college football fans this season – and it’s not even close.  College football fans have watched 59,170,335,000 minutes of college football action on ESPN’s Nielsen-rated television networks* through the season’s first eight weeks, nearly three times larger than all other nationally rated television networks combined** (20,385,008,000 total minutes).

Factoring in streaming data, college football fans have watched 61,389,629,000 minutes of college football games across ESPN’s Nielsen-rated networks and digital networks*** thus far this season.

College Football Week 8

ABC’s Saturday Night Football Continues to Set the Pace Among Broadcast Networks
ABC’s Saturday Night Football featuring Ohio State at Penn State (8 p.m.) delivered a total live audience (TV+ streaming) of 6,563,000 viewers, up 23% from last season’s week 8 ABC’s Saturday Night Football telecast (Ohio State at Rutgers). As a result of the television audience (6,478,000 viewers), ABC was the most-watched broadcast network in prime time for the fourth consecutive college football Saturday, while also seeing increases in total viewers for the fifth consecutive week.

ESPN/ABC Combine to Televise Five of Six Most-Watched Games
Overall, ESPN/ABC combined to televise five of the six most-watched college football games in week 8, which included Wisconsin at Iowa (noon on ESPN) and Ole Miss at LSU (9 p.m. on ESPN)

The Badgers-Hawkeyes game earned a total live audience of 3,326,000 viewers, up 98% from last year’s comparable window (Iowa State at Baylor). The Rebels-Tigers game (9 p.m. on ESPN) had a total live audience of 2,754,000 up 29% from comparable window (Washington at Stanford).

*ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, and ESPN Deportes (TV only data). SEC Network, SEC Network Alternate, ESPNEWS, and Longhorn Network are not included they are not Nielsen rated networks. 

**CBS, NBC, FOX, FS1 (TV only data)

***ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN Deportes (TV + Streaming) and streaming data for ESPN3, ACC Network Extra and SEC Network +, games.

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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; [email protected] and @DerekVolner