Audience Analysis: Big Ten's Return A Boost For TV Partners

The return of Big Ten football brought with it a boost for the conference's TV partners over the weekend. Fox led the way with 6.18 million viewers for Ohio State’s 52-17 win over Nebraska in the “Big Noon Saturday” window. That was easily the top game of the weekend and second-best college football game audience this season to date on any network. Ohio State started last season in Week 1 on Fox in the same window against FAU (2.62 million viewers). ABC had Michigan’s blowout of Minnesota on “Saturday Night Football,” averaging 5.12 million viewers up against Game 4 of the World Series on Fox. Despite the MLB competition, that figure is 21% higher than the average for all Big Ten games on ABC last season (4.22 million viewers). Both Nebraska-Ohio State and Michigan-Minnesota topped CBS’ Alabama-Tennessee in the 3:30pm ET window (4.36 million). Big Ten Network on Friday night averaged 1.01 million viewers for Illinois-Wisconsin up against Game 3 of the World Series, marking the best of the network's four games over the weekend.

NOTES: Telemundo averaged 870,000 viewers for Chivas-Cruz Azul on Sunday, marking the No. 1 Spanish-language sports telecast last week. That topped Univision's Club America-Atlas match on Saturday....Golf Channel averaged 860,000 viewers for the final round of the PGA Tour Zozo Championship on Sunday, which saw Patrick Cantlay take the victory. That is up 9% from last year, when Tiger Woods won the debut version of the Japan-based event. This year's tournament was relocated to the greater L.A. area, meaning it aired during regular viewing hours in the U.S.  

The chart below lists viewership figures for select recent sports telecasts.

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