wow......that's the kind of thing that might preclude that NYE scheduling from ever going down the same way....
CFB semifinal tv ratings down 39%
- Thread starter Ataylor1989x
- Start date
wow......that's the kind of thing that might preclude that NYE scheduling from ever going down the same way....
My unscientific survey. First plane from Phoenix to Houston-when I walked the aisle, did not see a single TV on the Orange Bowl. Second flight did not have TV and I am glad for it.
This may give cfb the power to force the Rose Bowl to alter their game. That is reason behind NYE games. Rose Bowl agreement from before playoff(BCS).
cotton bowl not surprising because it was so late. I would have thought the orange bowl ratings would be higher. I know I personally had time to catch the orange bowl before I went out, but missed a lot of the cotton bowl.
I can't believe how bad this season has been - pro and cfb. Yesterday's main games were awful. Houston was ok. NC game with OSU and Bama would have been awesome. Now its a given Bama will expose the kitty paw team. Another game over by before 3rd Q is finished
Teams like Clemson and michigan state are not household names and that affects ratings. Oklahoma is a household name but they also seem to be something of a ratings killer (they sure can't kill anyone else).
Twice during our trip in Arizona, the bar/restaurant had something else on TV when bowl games were on. Yesterday I asked bartender to put on the bowl game at noon and he asked which one. Don't think general public cUres that much about college football.
You may be right,....just like every other sport, the revenue model means more and more games on premium tv, which means fewer and fewer casual fans......which means less cultural relevance overall, even though the revenue is strong.
In that respect, the Big Ten Network serves as a tax on die hard fans.
New Year's Eve games are an absolute disaster. It would be similar to the NFL pulling their biggest games from a Sunday and putting them on a Friday night starting at happy hour.
According to this article, it was not the Evil Empire's choice to have those games on New Year's Eve but was due to the preferences of the committee that runs the playoffs and, I guess, all of the NY6 bowls.
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nca...ootball-playoff-ratings/ar-BBo7fRV?li=BBnba9I
http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nca...ootball-playoff-ratings/ar-BBo7fRV?li=BBnba9I
ESPN predicted a falloff last year:
"Privately, ESPN insiders say they are prepared for double-digit drops in viewership if the semifinals remain on New Year’s Eve."
ESPN, NFL lobby for changes in College Football Playoff calendar
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2015/01/26/Events-and-Attractions/CFP.aspx
I created a thread weeks before that this was a bad idea.
Deadspin sums it up:
That’s a 36% drop-off from last year’s semifinal viewership, worse than even the most pessimistic projections. ESPN says it’s trying to establish New Year’s Eve as “college football day,” the same way the NBA has claimed Christmas and the NFL Thanksgiving. After all, it was a conscious choice to put the games on a night when nobody is watching TV:
Playoff officials had a chance earlier this year to move the semis to Jan. 2, a Saturday with no competition from NFL games, but they were apparently so eager to begin the “new tradition” of playing games on New Year’s Eve that they decided to inconvenience fans and risk losing millions of viewers.
Good work, playoff officials.
http://deadspin.com/reports-espn-college-football-playoff-game-ratings-wen-1750592882
Deadspin sums it up:
That’s a 36% drop-off from last year’s semifinal viewership, worse than even the most pessimistic projections. ESPN says it’s trying to establish New Year’s Eve as “college football day,” the same way the NBA has claimed Christmas and the NFL Thanksgiving. After all, it was a conscious choice to put the games on a night when nobody is watching TV:
Playoff officials had a chance earlier this year to move the semis to Jan. 2, a Saturday with no competition from NFL games, but they were apparently so eager to begin the “new tradition” of playing games on New Year’s Eve that they decided to inconvenience fans and risk losing millions of viewers.
Good work, playoff officials.
http://deadspin.com/reports-espn-college-football-playoff-game-ratings-wen-1750592882
I think it's combo of NYE and the blowouts. I tend think that NYE was the bigger contributing factor. NYD is a great time for bowls because everyone is winding down from NYE parties and gatherings so they're more likely to be home.
I forgot how often do these NYE games come up?
I forgot how often do these NYE games come up?
Now that you say that it does ring a bell. NYD or even the day after are likely better. I think they thought having them earlier in the day at 4 and 8 might not interfere with watching but some are getting ready to go out, resting up etc...so it's not the ideal time.
We'll see if they continue the experiment a little longer but I tend to think it will change one way or another if ratings don't perk up. Rose Bowl interference or not, they'll work around it. ESPN didn't pay all that money for lesser ratings.
You know one other thing that I wonder about how much contributes to the gap and drop in ratings is the newness of the playoffs in its first year vs. the 2nd year. Say everything was the same with regards to competitiveness of games and timing of games would there likely have been a drop off this year anyway. It might have been exacerbated by the blowouts and NYE would a drop off have happened but to a lesser extent this being the playoffs 2nd year?
I always have a NYE party- an inside tailgate like one- I will not watch it, and I stay up until the last West Coast game is over on Saturday night, watch Thurday and Friday night games. New Years Eve is like a like a holy day for me- and it seems like lots of other college football fans.
http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsport...perfect-day-for-the-college-football-playoff/
Today would have been a perfect day for the College Football Playoff
The numbers are in and the results were not good for the College Football Playoff and ESPN. As noted yesterday, the TV ratings for the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl semifinal games in the College Football Playoff drew solid numbers by many accounts, but took a massive nosedive compared to the numbers from the previous season. Playing on New Years Eve was a tradition the playoff folks wanted to sell despite ESPN begging and pleading for an adjustment to the schedule.
Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated reports ESPN drew an audience of 18,552,000 for the Cotton Bowl and 15,640,000 for the Orange Bowl. That is a lot of people, without question. However, each playoff game a year ago drew an average audience of over 28 million. That is a lot of people who chose not to watch the playoff this season.
What makes the decision to play on December 31 even more maddening is the fact today was wide open for the taking to keep everybody happy. Here are a few reasons why January 2 would have been exponentially better for the College Football Playoff, compared to New Years Eve;
No NFL scheduling conflicts
College football scores well in the TV ratings, but the NFL is still king. If the idea is to avoid getting into any scheduling conflicts with NFL programming, that was not an issue this year. The NFL is entering the final week of the regular season and has a full line-up on Sunday. No Saturday games. No Monday night games. Every game in the final week is played on Sunday. Playing the College Football Playoff semifinal games on Saturday would have been the biggest draw on TV today, without any threat of competition from any other sport or league.
There would be some minor scheduling issues to address, with the Dallas Cowboys playing the next day at home after the Cotton Bowl and the Miami Dolphins playing at home the next day after the Orange Bowl, but the benefit of advance scheduling for the playoff and the NFL could easily avoid any issues if needed. The same could hold true in Atlanta and Arizona if needed. This isn’t that hard.
The Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl would be satisfied
One of the main reasons the College Football Playoff played semifinal games on New Years Eve is because the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl would not yield time slots on January 1. In a sport where tradition seems to be abandoned for the almighty dollar, the irony here is priceless. But the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl could have stayed right where they were on January 1 and the College Football Playoff could put their top games the following day instead, and used the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl to help push viewers to tune in the following day. This was a massive strategic failure for the College Football Playoff. Instead, these games provided a limited push for a championship game that won’t be played for another week and a half.
After all, isn’t Saturday what college football is for? Why not take advantage of that?
College football is played on Saturday, for the most part. With no other threat to TV programming, the College Football Playoff should have used THIS day to line up the biggest games of the year, when fewer people are missing games due to work schedules and holiday get-togethers and more. Don’t blame ESPN. They tried. From Deitsch’s report:
“We approached the CFP with a one-year change—and really a one-year-only opportunity—because of a complete quirk in the calendar,” said Ilan Ben-Hanan, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions. “With Saturday being a traditional college football day, we thought it could be a great one-time opportunity to have the semifinals fall on Jan. 2. You would have the Rose and Sugar and Fiesta [bowls] on Jan. 1 as it already is scheduled and then you would move what is the current New Year’s Eve schedule to Jan. 2. We approached the CFP with [the idea], the CFP vetted it and they decided to stick with the regularly scheduled calendar, which is fine, and we move forward.”
College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock declined to comment on the New Years Six scheduling until after the New Years Day ratings come in. Those numbers should be more positive for the College Football Playoff, although it will be important to not get too carried away with an expected drop in Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl ratings, as those games served as playoff games last season. A string of blowouts should have an interesting impact as well.
Once the College Football Playoff lets the rating numbers sink in, they would be asinine not to see the benefit of moving the biggest games off of New Years Eve, even if they think it is a nice tradition.
Today would have been a perfect day for the College Football Playoff
The numbers are in and the results were not good for the College Football Playoff and ESPN. As noted yesterday, the TV ratings for the Cotton Bowl and Orange Bowl semifinal games in the College Football Playoff drew solid numbers by many accounts, but took a massive nosedive compared to the numbers from the previous season. Playing on New Years Eve was a tradition the playoff folks wanted to sell despite ESPN begging and pleading for an adjustment to the schedule.
Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated reports ESPN drew an audience of 18,552,000 for the Cotton Bowl and 15,640,000 for the Orange Bowl. That is a lot of people, without question. However, each playoff game a year ago drew an average audience of over 28 million. That is a lot of people who chose not to watch the playoff this season.
What makes the decision to play on December 31 even more maddening is the fact today was wide open for the taking to keep everybody happy. Here are a few reasons why January 2 would have been exponentially better for the College Football Playoff, compared to New Years Eve;
No NFL scheduling conflicts
College football scores well in the TV ratings, but the NFL is still king. If the idea is to avoid getting into any scheduling conflicts with NFL programming, that was not an issue this year. The NFL is entering the final week of the regular season and has a full line-up on Sunday. No Saturday games. No Monday night games. Every game in the final week is played on Sunday. Playing the College Football Playoff semifinal games on Saturday would have been the biggest draw on TV today, without any threat of competition from any other sport or league.
There would be some minor scheduling issues to address, with the Dallas Cowboys playing the next day at home after the Cotton Bowl and the Miami Dolphins playing at home the next day after the Orange Bowl, but the benefit of advance scheduling for the playoff and the NFL could easily avoid any issues if needed. The same could hold true in Atlanta and Arizona if needed. This isn’t that hard.
The Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl would be satisfied
One of the main reasons the College Football Playoff played semifinal games on New Years Eve is because the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl would not yield time slots on January 1. In a sport where tradition seems to be abandoned for the almighty dollar, the irony here is priceless. But the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl could have stayed right where they were on January 1 and the College Football Playoff could put their top games the following day instead, and used the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl to help push viewers to tune in the following day. This was a massive strategic failure for the College Football Playoff. Instead, these games provided a limited push for a championship game that won’t be played for another week and a half.
After all, isn’t Saturday what college football is for? Why not take advantage of that?
College football is played on Saturday, for the most part. With no other threat to TV programming, the College Football Playoff should have used THIS day to line up the biggest games of the year, when fewer people are missing games due to work schedules and holiday get-togethers and more. Don’t blame ESPN. They tried. From Deitsch’s report:
“We approached the CFP with a one-year change—and really a one-year-only opportunity—because of a complete quirk in the calendar,” said Ilan Ben-Hanan, ESPN’s vice president of programming and acquisitions. “With Saturday being a traditional college football day, we thought it could be a great one-time opportunity to have the semifinals fall on Jan. 2. You would have the Rose and Sugar and Fiesta [bowls] on Jan. 1 as it already is scheduled and then you would move what is the current New Year’s Eve schedule to Jan. 2. We approached the CFP with [the idea], the CFP vetted it and they decided to stick with the regularly scheduled calendar, which is fine, and we move forward.”
College Football Playoff executive director Bill Hancock declined to comment on the New Years Six scheduling until after the New Years Day ratings come in. Those numbers should be more positive for the College Football Playoff, although it will be important to not get too carried away with an expected drop in Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl ratings, as those games served as playoff games last season. A string of blowouts should have an interesting impact as well.
Once the College Football Playoff lets the rating numbers sink in, they would be asinine not to see the benefit of moving the biggest games off of New Years Eve, even if they think it is a nice tradition.
Do these ratings reflect televisions on or people watching? If I this were not on NYE, I would have watched it at home with maybe 3 or 4 people. Since it was NYE, there were 15. Admittedly, I did miss huge chunks because of driving, conversations with other people and the fact that Clemson was in one game and both turned out to be non-competitive. If tOSU and ND were playing instead of MSU and Clemson, this discussion isn't happening (even with similar game results).
It reflects a little of both I believe. When they figure out ratings there's an algorithm that for each tv turned on, a certain number of people are watching that tv. With NYE being more viewing party based than sitting on the couch with 1 or 2 people like NYD is, it makes it tougher to get a completely accurate ratings number
No surprise - where are all the people from the other thread saying ratings wouldn't suffer on NYE? Who the hell watches football on NYE? Biggest party night of the year. I didn't even know who won the games until the next day. Stupid, stupid decision to put them on NYE - we've had a decades long tradition of major bowl games on NY day - why mess with that?
