- Year-over-Year Growth For ABC’s Saturday Night Football and Across ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU
- ABC and ESPN were Top Two Networks in Key Demographics on Saturday Night
ESPN/ABC televised five of the six most-watched college football games in week 6, with ABC’s Saturday Night Football featuring Florida State at Miami (8 p.m. ET) being the most-watched game on an ESPN network. The prime-time, ACC matchup delivered a total live audience (TV + Streaming) of 5,602,000 viewers, up 58% from last year’s week 6 ABC’s Saturday Night Football game, which was also Seminoles vs. Hurricanes.
On ESPN in prime time, Alabama at Arkansas (7 p.m.) delivered a total live audience of 4,539,000 viewers, the network’s most-watched game since the season’s kickoff week and third most-watched overall this season. The Top 25, SEC West matchup was ESPN’s most-streamed game of the week with an average minute audience of 95,000 viewers and a total of 485,000 unique viewers watching 21,273,000 minutes — up 27%, 34%, and 30%, respectively, from the comparable window last year, which was also the Crimson Tide vs. Razorbacks matchup.
As a result of the college football audiences, ABC and ESPN were the No. 1 and No. 2 networks on Saturday night in key demographics: men 18-34, men 18-49, men 25-54 and persons 18-34, persons 18-49 and persons 25-54. Additionally, ABC was the No. 1 network in persons 2+.
Please note: Six markets are missing data for every game due to Hurricane Matthew: Charlotte, Jacksonville, Norfolk, Orlando, Raleigh-Durham, and West Palm Beach
ESPN/ABC Additional Highlights:
- Indiana at Ohio State (3:30 p.m. on ESPN): A total live audience of 3,304,000 viewers, up 24% from last year’s comparable window (LSU vs. South Carolina).
- Auburn at Mississippi State (Noon on ESPN): A total live audience of 1,977,000 viewers, up 26% from last year’s comparable window (Indiana at Penn State).
- Clemson at Boston College (Friday, October 7, at 7:30 p.m. on ESPN): A total live audience 1,702,000 viewers, up 10% from last year’s comparable window (NC State at Virginia Tech).
- ESPN2 up Year-over-Year: The network saw audience increases in its three full national games: Iowa at Minnesota (noon) had a total live audience of1,078,000 viewers, Michigan at Rutgers (7 p.m.) earned 1,322,000 viewers and UCLA-Arizona State (10:30 p.m.) had 801,000 viewers — up 4%, 12%, and 206%, respectively, year over year (Illinois at Iowa (noon), Oklahoma State at West Virginia (7 p.m.), and Wyoming at Air Force (11 p.m.)).
- ESPNU Sees Audience Growth: TCU at Kansas (noon), Iowa State at Oklahoma State (3:30 p.m.) and Texas Tech at Kansas State (7:15 p.m.) delivered total audiences of 342,000 viewers, 676,000 viewers and 719,000 viewers, respectively. The audiences represented year over year growth of 272%, 174%, and 153%, respectively, from the network’s comparable windows last season – Tulane at Temple (Noon), Minnesota at Purdue (3:30 p.m.) and East Carolina at BYU (7 p.m.).
All games were Saturday, October 8, unless noted
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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; Derek.Volner@ESPN.com and @DerekVolner
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