ABC Airs Three Most-Watched College Football Games Across All Networks
By: Caryn Robbins Sep. 14, 2016
ABC televised the three most-watched games across all networks during college football's week two, led by the Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol between Virginia Tech and Tennessee (Saturday, Sept. 10 at 8 p.m.). The Volunteers' 45-24 victory delivered a prime-time, total live audience of 5,875,000 average viewers (TV + Streaming), including a television audience of 5,790,000 average viewers which led ABC to win the night across all broadcast and cable networks in households, people 2+ and all key male and persons demos (men 18-34, men 18-49, men 25-54, P18-34, P18-49, P25-54) The historic game was also ESPN's most-streamed game of the day, with an average minute audience of 85,000 viewers and a total of 403,000 unique viewers totaling 21,100,000 minutes watched.
The first two games of ABC's Saturday tripleheader were college football's second and third most-watched games across all networks with Tulsa at Ohio State (3:30 p.m.) delivering a total live audience of 4,057,000 average viewers and Central Florida at Michigan with 2,918,000 average viewers (noon).ESPN highlights:
- Rivalry Renewed Results in ESPN Viewership Growth: Penn State at Pittsburgh (noon on ESPN) had a total live audience of 2,455,000 average viewers, up 8% from the comparable window last year (South Florida at Florida State).
- ESPN2 Experiences Audience Increases: South Carolina at Mississippi State (7 p.m.), Western Kentucky at Alabama (3:30 p.m.) and Wyoming at Nebraska (noon) - each on ESPN2 - all experienced significant year-over-year audience increases over their comparable windows last season.
- The Hilltoppers -Crimson Tide game set the pace, achieving a total live audience of 2,536,000 average viewers, a 293% increase year-over-year (Fresno State at Ole Miss) and ESPN2's largest audience in the last 104 games, dating back to October 2014.
- The Gamecocks-Bulldogs matchup had a total live audience of 1,458,000 average viewers, an increase of 36% (East Carolina at Florida) and the Cowboys-Cornhuskers earned a total live audience of 1,152,000 average viewers, up 20% (Buffalo at Penn State).
- Tigers Draw a Large Audience on ESPNU: LSU's home opener vs. Jacksonville State (8 p.m.) had a total live audience of 828,000 average viewers, a 90% increase over the comparable window last year (Ball State at Texas A&M).
- ESPN's Streaming Audience Continues to Grow: ESPN's streaming for COLLEGE FOOTBALL games in week 2 also saw year-over-year growth with 2,500,000 unique viewers watching 203,300,000 minutes, up 11% and 5%, respectively, from last season's week 2.
- Through the first two weeks of the season, the average week is up 35% in unique viewers and up 47% in total minutes vs. last season.
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