Time for some predictions for 2015. Looking back through the archives, the last predictions post on this site was done in 2012 so it’s time to do one now.
I’ll do it a little differently than in previous years. Here goes.
January
The first-ever College Football National Championship Game on ESPN draws a record cable audience of 29.7 million viewers eclipsing the previous record of the 2011 BCS National Championship Game of 27.316 million. The peak audience for the game which will have gone down the wire will be 34 million.
February
Super Bowl XLIX between the Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots draws a record audience of 114.7 million viewers for NBC. That will break the record previously set by Super Bowl XLVIII on Fox which had 112.2 million. The halftime show with Katy Perry will draw an average 117 million viewers, outpacing last year’s halftime with Bruno Mars which averaged 115.3 million.
April
The NCAA Men’s Final Four on TBS does better than last year’s 14 million viewers and Turner does better promotion for its three channel Teamcast. Fans get the intended bias on truTV and TNT, but there are those still confused and express their anger on Twitter.
After dropping to record low ratings last year, CBS rallies with The Masters® to more respectable numbers, however, Tiger Woods fails to make the cut for the weekend, but Phil Mickelson’s presence helps the viewership.
CBS announces that it has signed Verne Lundquist to a one-year contract making the 2015 SEC on CBS season his last for the network. He will also work one more Masters and NCAA Tournament before hanging up his microphone.
May
At the NFL Draft in Chicago, the league announces that it will pick up its one-year option for Thursday Night Football with CBS. It also announces that with the success of the draft in Chicago, the event will move to Philadelphia the following year. In addition, CBS and the NFL continue to talk about TNF and it paves the way for a long-term announcement later in the year that runs through the end of the current NFL TV contract. As a result, CBS gets an extra Wild Card game when the playoffs expand to 14 teams.
June
The FCC approves the AT&T/DirecTV merger and that finally leads to a carriage agreement with Pac-12 Networks, however, the satellite provider only agrees to carry the main channel and not pick up any of the regional networks.
The U.S. Open on Fox/Fox Sports 1 draws severe criticism from golf fans who fire multiple salvos at host Joe Buck. Ratings do well for FS1, but draw lower on Fox than what NBC did for 2014.
July
The MLB All-Star Game gets another viewership and ratings increase. The game will draw 11.5 million viewers on Fox and a 7.2 rating.
Vin Scully announces that he’ll return to the call the Los Angeles Dodgers for his 67th season in 2016, but says it will be his final season. I’m going to keep predicting Scully retires until I’m actually correct.
August
ESPN’s first year of full-time coverage of the US Open draws some praise, but also some criticism as Labor Day weekend coverage is outsourced to Tennis Channel due to college football commitments. As not all cable providers carry Tennis Channel, some big matches are missed by much of the viewing audience.
September
The Big Ten announces it has awarded its football rights to ESPN and Fox once again shutting out NBC which puts in a very strong big. ESPN will air the Ohio State-Michigan game each year while Fox will take the Big Ten Championship Game. Fox Sports 1 will get a weekly noon ET game while ESPN/ABC will get rights to a 3:30 p.m. Fox will have the opportunity to air Saturday night primetime games including Penn State-Ohio State and Michigan-Michigan State.
October
The English Premier League agrees to another three year contract with NBC fighting off a tough bid from ESPN/Fox. As a result, NBC re-ups host Rebecca Lowe and expands her role to weekly segments on Football Night in America as well as making her the main Olympic host on NBCSN for the 2016 Rio Olympics and 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Lowe also begins to make regular appearances on Late Night With Seth Meyers.
The World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Baltimore Orioles draws the highest ratings for the Fall Classic on Fox in five years, however, it still is one of the lowest-rated and lowest-viewed Series.
December
The NFL officially announces that it will expand the playoffs to 14 teams starting in the 2016 season. Having already announced that CBS will get one Wild Card Game, the NFL awards the other to Fox Sports. In addition, the NFL says Wild Card Weekend will consist of a Saturday doubleheader at 4:30 p.m. and 8:15 p.m. ET, a Sunday tripleheader at 1, 4:30 and 8:15 p.m. and a Monday night game at 8 p.m.
And those are your predictions for 2015. We gave you 15 for ’15. This does not mean I’ll do 16 in 2016. We’ll see how well I did at the end of this year.
