Another BCS game and another impressive overnight rating on cable. The 8.4 overnight rating for last night’s Sugar Bowl between Ohio State and Arkansas, a nailbiter in the second half, turned out to be just 3% lower than last year’s game, played on New Year’s night on Fox). So while the ratings are lower than what they were on network TV, ESPN still has to be satisfied that fans are finding the games. It turns out to the be second highest overnight rating for a college football game on the network.
The details are below.
Sugar Bowl: ESPN’s Second-Best College Football Overnight EverRecord College Football Audience for ESPN3.comThe Allstate Sugar Bowl earned an 8.4 overnight rating on ESPN, according to Nielsen, the second-highest overnight rating for college football in ESPN history. The game, a 31-26 Ohio State win over Arkansas, trails only last week’s Rose Bowl Game (11.7), and all four BCS telecasts this month are among ESPN’s top six college football overnights ever.The 8.4 overnight rating – which only represents television viewership – is 17% higher than last year’s Orange Bowl (Iowa – Georgia Tech, 7.2), played on the equivalent Tuesday night, and three percent lower than last year’s Sugar Bowl (8.7, Florida-Cincinnati, played on New Year’s night).On ESPN3.com, the game was watched by more than 248,000 unique viewers for a total of close to 15.8 million minutes consumed, making it the most unique viewers ever for a college football game on ESPN3.com. Thus far, three of the top five college football games based on most unique viewers came from this year’s BCS bowl games (Sugar Bowl, Rose Bowl and Orange Bowl).Across ESPN’s digital platforms (ESPN.com, ESPN Mobile Web & ScoreCenter App, and ESPN3.com), January 4 saw 106.7 million total minutes of usage to college football content across, an average of 74,000 users per minute. Highlights for the day include ESPN.com’s 14.9 million visits, 34.8 million page views and 69.5 million total minutes, increases of 29 percent, 35 percent and 39 percent, respectively from the same Tuesday in 2010. Additionally, college football content on the ESPN Mobile Web generated 6.1 million visits (up 71 percent), 12.2 million page views (up 54 percent) and 19.8 million total minutes (up 148%).Season to date, bowl games on ESPN3.com have delivered close to 124 million minutes consumed, up 183 percent vs. last year.Tuesday’s game drew large television audiences in particular markets, led by Columbus (46.2), Dayton (27.6), Birmingham (25.7), Cleveland (25.1), New Orleans (25.0) and Memphis (16.3). There is no metered market in Arkansas. The rating in Columbus is the highest for college football ever on ESPN or ESPN2 in that market (records begin in 2000) and is the highest for any market during the current bowl season.
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