ESPN's BCS Championship Game Ratings Down, But Not A Record Low

A dull and lackluster game between Alabama and LSU led to lower ratings in the BCS National Championship. While ESPN says the viewership is the second highest in the history of the network, the numbers are still down from last year.

Last night, the BCS National Championship Game received a 14.0 rating, down 9% from last year’s Auburn-Oregon game which garnered a 15.3 rating.

Viewership for last night was a very good 24.2 million viewers, but that’s still down 11% from 2011’s 27.3 million.

ESPN is still not complaining, but not officially reporting its 14.0 rating in its press release. While not the lowest rated BCS National Championship Game, the numbers are very good for cable TV. The Sports Media Watch site notes that only the 2005 game between USC and Oklahoma on ABC rated lower.

Here’s the ESPN press release.

BCS National Championship: Cable’s Second Biggest Audience of All Time

ESPN Wins the Night; Record College Football Audience for ESPN’s Digital Platforms

ESPN’s telecast of the Allstate Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship – Alabama’s 21-0 shutout of LSU — posted a 16.2 fast national household coverage rating, according to Nielsen, representing an average of 16,072,000 households, the second highest of any program in the history in cable television (records go back to 1987).  The average of 24,214,000 viewers (P2+) was also second best in cable.  It also is ESPN’s second-highest rating of all time.

The only telecast in cable television history with a larger audience was last year’s BCS Championship on ESPN (17,718,000 homes and 27,316,000 people, based on a 17.8 rating), a 22-19 Auburn victory over Oregon decided by a field goal as time expired.

The game was the most-viewed telecast of the night in all of television, broadcast or cable, and powered ESPN to win the night among all networks.

The programming leading into and following the game performed well.  BCS Showcase (8:15-30 p.m. ET) earned a 7.7 metered market rating while BCS Post-Game (11:30 p.m. – midnight) drew a 7.9.

The game earned notable local ratings in a variety of markets:

  • Birmingham averaged a 61.2 rating, best of all metered markets, the second highest-rated bowl game on the ESPN networks in this market, behind only the 2011 National Championship (67.0; Auburn/Oregon)
  • New Orleans averaged a 53.3 overnight rating, second best in the nation and the highest-rated bowl game ever on the ESPN networks in this market
  • In addition, Austin (20.5), Greensboro (17.3), Greenville (24.5), Houston (16.2), Jacksonville (23.0), Memphis (25.8), Orlando (16.6), and Providence (9.6) delivered their highest-rating for a bowl game on the ESPN networks in the 2012 BCS National Championship.
  • Records date back to 2000

Record College Football Audience on ESPN’s Digital Platforms

Across all WatchESPN platforms – computer, smartphone, tablet, Xbox – the average minute audience for the BCS National Championship game totaled 261,000 people, up 40 percent over last year’s game, and a record for college football on ESPN’s digital platforms. More than 523,000 people watched the game on WatchESPN.com, generating 39.6 million minutes and an average minute audience of 227,000 people, which is up 20 percent compared to last year.

For the five BCS Bowl Games on WatchESPN.com, the average minute audience was 114,000 (up 27 percent over last year). For the entire bowl season, fans spent 6.9 million minutes per game on WatchESPN.com for an average time spent of 59 minutes per game, up 31 percent and 28 percent vs. 2011, respectively. ESPN’s college football content on the mobile web reached 872,000 fans and more than three million page views during the bowl season, up 15 percent and 11 percent respectively, compared to a year ago.

That’s it for now.

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013. He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television. Fang celebrates the three Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.

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