College Football Title Ratings Fall 12% as Pay-TV Erosion Accelerates

The first College Football Playoff National Championship under the expanded 12-team format took a bit of a ratings hit, as Ohio State’s victory over Notre Dame averaged 22.1 million viewers, good for a 12% decline compared to the year-ago mark.

Deliveries peaked from 8:30 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. ET, when 26.1 million fans were tuned in. All told, this year’s game ranks as college football’s fourth least-watched title tilt of the last 10 years.

Last year’s championship game, in which Michigan overpowered Washington by a 34-13 margin, averaged 25.1 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks. In nailing down their first unanimous national title since 1948, the Wolverines laid claim to the 34th most-watched sporting event of 2024. This year’s game is likely to finish somewhere in the low 50s.

The Buckeyes’ 42-20 blowout of the Oregon Ducks in 2015 was the most-watched title tilt of the CFP era, which officially got underway that same year. The inaugural game still stands as the biggest draw of the post-Bowl Championship Series age, averaging 33.9 million viewers. But what a difference a decade makes; on the night the Buckeyes plucked the Ducks, 100 million households subscribed to a cable/satellite/telco-TV service, as the bundle was taken up by 86% of all U.S. TV homes.

As of last fall, the tally of bundled subs was down to 48.2 million homes, which works out to just 40% penetration. Including vMVPD/“skinny bundle” subs, pay-TV’s overall reach is now at 68.5 million homes, with penetration hovering at 54%.

College football isn’t alone in having to deal with the downstream effects of the withering pay-TV universe. Through last weekend’s Divisional Round, deliveries for the NFL playoffs are down 8% from the year-ago period, which works out to an average loss of 2.7 million viewers per window….

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football-title-ratings-fall-221040602.html

Author : Sportico

Publish date : 2025-01-22 22:10:00

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