Post: #1Drop in Average Viewership for ACC Football Games
er Sports Media Watch reporting of college football viewership, average ACC football game viewership decreased from 2.0M in 2023 to 1.4M in 2024.
Interestingly, the average viewers didn't change much when controlling for the broadcaster:
Channel...2023...2024
ABC.........3.6M...3.5M
ESPN........1.3M...1.8M
Other........0.5M...0.5M
Note: Other channels contracted with the ACC includes ESPN2, ESPNU and CW
What really changed between 2023 and 2024 was the number of games broadcast by each channel:
Channel...2023...2024
ABC.........21.......4
ESPN........12......26
Other........16......22
In 2023, eight (8) FSU games were shown on ABC. Four (4) games for each of Clemson, Louisville and Miami were also on ABC during the 2023 regular season. In 2024, ABC got access to SEC games for the first time. ABC's ratings exploded by promoting the SEC while bumping the ACC and B12 games to other channels (as well as PAC teams & games going to other conferences). FWIW, the 38 SEC games on ABC averaged 6.5M viewers in 2024...it's easy to understand why ABC went all-in on the SEC.
Average viewership of ACC games reported over the past eight years:
Year....Games....Average Viewers
2024....52...........1.4M
2023....49...........2.0M
2022....30...........2.5M
2021....33...........1.6M
2020....25...........3.3M
2019....31...........1.9M
2018....46...........1.6M
2017....47...........2.0M
https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college...v-ratings/
Based on the past 8 years viewership data on home games, the pecking order for media attraction:
FSU - 35 rate games & 2.8M average home game viewers
Clemson - 33 & 3.0M
Miami - 28 & 2.2M
GT - 22 & 2.3M
Louisville - 19 & 2.2M
UNC - 22 & 1.9M
Stanford - 24 & 1.6M
Pitt - 23 & 1.6M
VT - 20 & 1.8M
BC - 18 & 1.6M
NCS - 21 & 1.4M
Cal - 20 & 1.3M
Cuse - 16 & 1.6M
Wake - 17 & 1.3M
UVa - 15 & 1.0M
SMU - 13 & 0.5M
SMU is a wonderful story this year, but media value would have improved if FSU won more games.
We won't see final numbers until later. But here are the overnights from the NFL vs the CFP.
— John Ourand (@Ourand_Puck) December 22, 2024
Steelers-Ravens on Fox: 7.6
Texans-Chiefs on NBC: 7.4
Tenn-OSU on ABC/ESPN: 6.3
Indiana-ND on ABC/ESPN: from Fri: 5.7
Clem-Tex on TNT Sports: 3.6
SMU-Penn St on TNT Sports: 3.1
