ESPN's Broadcast of BCS National Championship Delivers Big Ratings

By: Caryn Robbins Jan. 08, 2013

ESPN's Discover BCS National Championship - No. 2 Alabama's 42-14 victory over No. 1 Notre Dame on Monday evening -- delivered a 15.7 overnight rating, a 14 percent increase from the 2012 game between Alabama and LSU (13.8 overnight rating), according to Nielsen.

This metered-market rating - the highest for all of cable television in two years, since the January 2011 BCS National Championship on ESPN, helped drive the network's five-game BCS average to a 9.0 metered market rating. That represents a 6 percent increase over a year ago (8.5 for the five-game average). Additionally, The Game was the highest-rated program on Monday, helping ESPN win the night among all networks.

In terms of local markets, the Discover BCS National Championship was the third highest-rated ESPN bowl game telecast on record in Birmingham with a 55.1 rating. Overall, 17 different markets set local ratings records by delivering the highest rating ever for a bowl game on ESPN (records go back to 2000). Last night's top five rated markets were Birmingham, New Orleans, Knoxville, Nashville and Atlanta. National ratings information, including television and online viewership should be available later today.