Wednesday, May 16, 2018

TV ratings 2017/18






TV RATINGS:

  • The 2018 College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship Presented by AT&T between Georgia and Alabama on ESPN delivered the second biggest audience in cable television history, solidifying the College Football Playoff's place in history as a ratings juggernaut with the four biggest TV audiences in cable history and seven of the top 10. This year's game produced a total live audience* of 29,932,000 viewers. The inaugural CFP game on ESPN in 2015 between Ohio State and Oregon remains No. 1 with 33,395,000 viewers.
  • The seven CFP games on ESPN, covering the New Year's Six and the CFP National Championship, averaged a total live audience* of more than 17 million viewers, making it the best ever in the four years of the new system. The average marked a 10 percent increase from last year and 25 percent from the 2015 season. The seven games also averaged a 9.8 overnight, also the best ever in the four years of the new system and up 5 percent from last year.
  • The 39 postseason college bowl games on ABC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, FOX and FS1 at the conclusion of the 2017 season averaged 5,308,000 viewers per game (representing an 8 percent increase over last season and a 3 percent increase from two years ago) while reaching 122 million unique fans+ on television. (The figures include the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl, which was played at the FCS level, but not the AutoNation Cure Bowl and the Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl, both telecast on CBSSN, which is not rated by Nielsen Media.)
  • Auburn's 26-14 upset of Alabama in the Iron Bowl on CBS was the most watched game of the season with 13,657,000 viewers and a 7.59 rating. CBS also carried the second most watched game of the regular season with 13,466,000 viewers watching Georgia best Auburn 28-7 in the SEC Championship.
  • A total live audience* of 12,604,000 watched No. 1 Alabama vs. No. 3 Florida State on ABC on Sept. 2, the first time in the sport's history that a No. 1 preseason team opened against an opponent ranked in the Top 3. The viewership set a new record across all networks as the most-watched college football kickoff weekend matchup ever.
  • The Top Five regular season games all attracted more than 10 million viewers and the Top 10 all eclipsed the seven million mark: Alabama-Auburn (13,657,000 on CBS); Auburn-Georgia (13,466,000 on CBS); Ohio State-Wisconsin (12,918,000 on FOX); Florida State-Alabama (12,335,000 on ABC); Ohio State-Michigan (10,507,000 on FOX); Penn State-Ohio State (9,868,000 on FOX); Army-Navy (8,419,000 on CBS); Oklahoma-Ohio State (8,086,000 on ABC); Michigan-Florida (7,650,000 on ABC); and Georgia-Auburn (7,407,000 on CBS).
  • For the 16th year in a row, Birmingham, Ala., remained the strongest TV market in the nation for college football on ESPN, averaging a 6.8 rating for all games televised by the network. The top five markets included Birmingham (6.8), Columbus, Ohio (5.0), Greenville, S.C. (4.5), Oklahoma City (3.9) and Knoxville, Tenn. (3.9).
  • ESPN's Digital Content: Fans spent 4.3 billion minutes consuming non-game, college football content on the ESPN app and ESPN.com, up 16 percent from last season.
ATTENDANCE:

* The 666 NCAA football programs (FBS, FCS, DII and DIII) drew annual NCAA report. The number represents a 3.3 percent drop from the 2016 season, but it also represents a 29.2 percent increase since 1997 and a 148.9 percent increase from the 19,134,159 fans that the NCAA reported when they first started collecting attendance figures in 1948*.

* The 40 FBS bowl games this season (including the CFP National Championship, but excluding the Air Force Reserve Celebration Bowl at the FCS level) attracted 1,620,253 spectators to the stands (40,506 per contest). The Top Ten bowls all had attendance in excess of 57,000 fans, and eight bowl games saw increases of more than 4,000 fans.


[​IMG]
  • The SEC led all FBS conferences in attendance for the 20th straight year, averaging 75,074 fans per game or a total of 7,357,228 in 2017, followed by the Big Ten (66,227), Big 12 (56,852), Pac-12 (49,601) and the ACC (48,442).
  • Michigan led all FBS schools again with an average attendance of 111,589 fans per home game in 2017. Three other schools also averaged more than 100,000 fans per game: Ohio State (107,495), Penn State (106,707) and Alabama (101,722). Rounding out the 2017 Top Ten leaders for average home team attendance were: Texas A&M (98,802); LSU (98,506); Tennessee (95,779); Texas (92,778); Georgia (92,746); and Nebraska (89,798).
  • Other universities with more than 80,000 fans per home game included Florida (86,715); Oklahoma (86,520); Auburn (86,446); and Clemson (80,773).
  • The Dr Pepper ACC Football Championship Game sold out at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C., drawing a crowd of 74,372 to watch No. 1 Clemson defeat No. 7 Miami (Fla.), 38-3. The seven previous ACC Football Championship Games have averaged more than 70,000 fans per game, including four sellouts.
  • Eight bowl games saw increases of more than 4,000 fans over last year's games: Allstate Sugar Bowl-CFP Semifinal (18,283); Citrus Bowl presented by Overton's (11,663); Military Bowl presented by Northrop Grumman (9,265); Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic (7,895); Las Vegas Bowl (7,146); AutoZone Liberty Bowl (6,179); Nova Home Loans Arizona Bowl (5,324); and Walk-On's Independence Bowl (4,606).
THIS WAS ALSO INCLUDED IN THE RELEASE:

  • Florida State played in a bowl game for the 36th consecutive year, the longest current streak in the nation, which started in 1982.

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