Most college bowl games are tackled for a loss

Moving sports from broadcast TV to cable often means a bigger paycheck for the rights holder, but it doesn't always mean bigger ratings for the buyer.

That's what happened to Walt Disney Co's. ESPN this year.

Several big college bowl games moved from their broadcast homes to ESPN and had disappointing ratings compared with those of 2010. For example, the Rose Bowl's audience dropped 14% to about 20.6 million, compared with the 24 million that tuned in to the game on ABC in 2010. The Fiesta Bowl's audience fell 22% to 10.8 million from the 13.8 million that watched it on Fox last year.

The biggest dip in viewership belongs to the Capital One Bowl. In 2010, 11.6 million watched Penn State beat LSU. This year, only 6 million watched Alabama beat Michigan State, a decline of almost 50%. The Orange, Fiesta and Sugar bowls also lost viewers.

Conversely, the Outback Bowl, which moved from ESPN to ABC, had huge growth. On ESPN, the 2010 game averaged about 5.7 million viewers. Last Saturday, the game got 12.4 million to watch, a jump of almost 120%.

ESPN said the lower numbers have more to do with the games themselves than they do with their new home on cable. An ESPN spokesman noted that the Gator Bowl (which lost 56% of its viewers on ESPN in 2011 vs. CBS in 2010) and the Capital One Bowl were both blowouts.

"We are very happy, particularly considering matchups and results," the spokesman said.

Indeed, the matchups do play a part. While the 2011 Sugar Bowl was off compared with 2010, its numbers were better than what Fox averaged in 2008 and 2009. ESPN's coverage of the 2011 Orange Bowl also scored more viewers than the 2009 Orange Bowl did.

-- Joe Flint

Photo: TCU celebrates its Rose Bowl win. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

 

 

Comments

[lkadjfl;kdjf;lakjds]

Pretty pointless article. Draw some conclusions.

[B. Real]

Who at ESPN said "the lower numbers have more to do with the games themselves than they do with their new home on cable?" I want to know as I want to make sure never to hire that blowhard.

Very rarely due we see any statistical results in any measure, where there is a definitive rule, like here. Games that moved to cable, did much worse. Games that moved from cable to broadcast did much better. AS A RULE.

And some lying hack at ESPN had the nerve to spin this?

[bob lee]

I missed the Ala/Mich St game because never got a schedule time at any one time while surfing; guess it's my fault but frankly I hate ESPN presentation of any games and certainly not the NFL; NFL network pretty sad also. I'm sorry but nothing is better than hearing "turn out the lights, the party's over". GET MY DRIFT??

[James Washington]

I love college football but can't see all of the games. If all of the bowl games were on Saturday or Sunday, I would watch all of the games all day long.

[Stanley Valdez]

WE NEED A PLAYOFF SYSTEM!!!! Every college sport has one from BB to Hockey.

[Rhadagastt]

I have a hard time watching any bowl games just because of the egregious corruption that is the BCS. The Federal Government wants to regulate what type of light bulbs we use and how much our toilets flush, yet the BCS is still allowed to persist. Its astounding to me that people buy into this crap. What is a bowl game anyhow? When looked at from through the lens of a typical sports perspective it makes no sense. Its just another game at the end of the season. It really has no larger significance in comparison, say, to the final 4. I don't get it, and I would love to say that people should stop watching bowl games until some sort of playoff is instituted that gives non-BCS schools a chance at the big stage, but that won't happen. As an alternative, I wish the general football watching population would understand how truly corrupt the BCS is. Just think-- if college basketball had a similar system we never would have been able to watch Butler in the National Championship.