ESPN’s networks and CBS are seeing gains for college football telecasts through Week 10, while NBC, NBCSN and Fox are seeing declines during the same period. CBS leads all nets with an average of 6.09 million viewers for its nine SEC games to date, highlighted by 13.6 million viewers for the Alabama-Texas A&M game on Sept. 14. The CBS average is up from 4.89 million viewers at the same point last year. The LSU-Alabama primetime matchup from ’12 is not factored in, as the two teams will play this Saturday night. The gains for CBS come as the SEC package has seen double-digit percentage declines the past two seasons. The CBS mark through Week 10 also is the net’s second-best average at this point in the season dating back to ’01 (behind only ’10). Meanwhile, ABC is averaging 4.8 million viewers for its games to date, up from 4.4 million viewers in '12. The net’s Saturday primetime package is averaging 6.36 million viewers, up 18% from 5.41 million viewers. Last Saturday’s Miami-Florida State game drew 8.35 million viewers for the net's top audience this season on the net, but still behind ESPN’s 8.65 million viewers for Notre Dame-Michigan on Sept. 7.
OFF SOME FROM '12: NBC is averaging 3.54 million viewers for its six Notre Dame games to date, down 23% from the same point last year, when the team was in the hunt for the national title. Fox’ package of nine Big 12 and Pac-12 games has averaged 2.34 million viewers to date, down from 2.7 million viewers last year, when the net had a more extensive slate of games (many of which went to FS1 this year). Fox had more games begin at 7:30pm or 7:45pm ET last year, whereas most games have started at 7:00pm this season. One of Fox’ top games -- the Oct. 26 Texas Tech-Oklahoma game -- was forced to end on Fox News after a long weather delay caused the game to bump up against the start of a World Series game.
CABLE: Each of ESPN’s cable networks is seeing an audience gain through Week 10 of the college football season. The flagship ESPN is averaging 2.7 million viewers, up from 2.61 million viewers. ESPN2 is at 1.21 million viewers, up from 1.13 million, while ESPNU’s average of 442,000 viewers is up from 424,000. ESPNews also is averaging 171,000 viewers for its first season of games specifically scheduled for the network (11 games). The net’s top game has been 378,000 viewers for Kentucky-Western Kentucky in primetime on Aug. 31. FS1 in its first year on air is averaging 453,000 viewers for 35 games, down from 673,000 viewers for a much-more-limited slate on FX last season. FS1 saw one its games affected by a weather delay on Oct. 26, with the Texas-TCU having to finish on FS2 closer to midnight. NBCSN’s package of Ivy League and CAA games have averaged 59,000 viewers, down from 86,000 at the same point last season, when the net also had Mountain West games.
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COLLEGE FOOTBALL GAME VIEWERSHIP THROUGH WEEK 10
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|
NETWORK
|
TELECASTS
|
VIEWERS (000)
|
PREV.
|
% +/-
|
'12 GAMES
|
|
CBS
|
9
|
6,094
|
4,891
|
24.6%
|
8
|
|
ABC
|
22
|
4,797
|
4,399
|
9.0%
|
23
|
|
Fox
|
9
|
2,344
|
2,700
|
-13.2%
|
14
|
|
NBC
|
6
|
3,537
|
4,616
|
-23.4%
|
6
|
|
ESPN
|
53
|
2,702
|
2,607
|
3.6%
|
52
|
|
ESPN2
|
39
|
1,209
|
1,128
|
7.2%
|
38
|
|
ESPNU
|
41
|
442
|
424
|
4.2%
|
n/a
|
|
ESPNews
|
11
|
171
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
n/a
|
|
FS1
|
35
|
453
|
673
|
-32.7%
|
15
|
|
NBCSN
|
6
|
59
|
86
|
-31.4%
|
15
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CHART NOTES: Figures unavailable for CBSSN, Pac-12 Network, Big Ten Network and Longhorn Network.
