- ESPN More Than Doubles Its 2015 Total Live Audience in Multiple Game Windows
- ESPN Airs Most-Watched Thursday Game of Season; SEC Network with Its Most-Streamed Saturday Game Ever
ESPN delivered its two best Saturday total live audiences (TV + digital) of the season and, combined with ABC, aired the four most-watched games across all networks during week 12 of the college football season.
Big Ten Games Set New ESPN Saturday Highs
In addition to becoming ESPN’s most-watched Saturday game of the year, Ohio State at Michigan State (noon ET) was the most-watched college football game of week 12 across all networks. The Buckeyes 17-16 win delivered a total live audience (TV + digital) of 5,990,000 viewers, up 181% from last year’s comparable game window (North Carolina at Virginia Tech). Additional Buckeye-Spartan notes:
- Streaming Audience Sets Highs: The streaming audience of 147,000 average viewers is ESPN’s highest for Saturday game this season, a top 10 regular season game ever for all ESPN’s networks and up 243% from the previously mentioned Tar Heels-Cavaliers game.
- Peak Television Audience: ESPN’s TV audience (5,843,000 viewers) peaked at 7,569,000 viewers late in the fourth quarter (3:15 p.m. – 3:25 p.m.).
Indiana at Michigan (3:30 p.m.) delivered a total live audience of 4,900,000 viewers, ESPN’s second most-watched Saturday game this season. The Hoosiers-Wolverines audience was up 188% from last year’s comparable game (USC at Oregon).
Additional Week 12 Highlights
- Louisville at Houston (Thursday, Nov. 17 at 8 p.m.): A total live audience of 2,509,000 viewers, the most-watched Thursday night college football telecast this season across all networks.
- USC at UCLA (10:30 p.m. on ESPN): A total live audience of 2,367,000 viewers, the most-watched Pac 12 game of the day across all networks and up 21% from the comparable game last year (Cal at Stanford).
- Chattanooga at Alabama (7 p.m. on ESPN2): A total live audience of 2,487,000 viewers, up 82% from the comparable game last year (Tennessee at Missouri).
- Florida at LSU (1 p.m. on SEC Network): SEC Network’s most-streamed Saturday game ever with 71,000 average viewers and 362,000 total unique viewers watching 14.8 million minutes.* Additionally, for the first Saturday this season, an SEC Network game was the most-social TV program of the day, as the Gators-Tigers matchup had 1,300,000 social interactions (per Nielsen social).
*Please note: SEC Network is not rated and thus no viewership available.
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Media contact: Derek Volner at 860-384-9986; Derek.Volner@ESPN.com and @DerekVolner
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