Big 12 TV contract

[Ira Hayes]

Has anyone noticed that the Big 12 ratings have been pretty lousy?

Clemson/FSU and Notre Dame/Michigan both drew more than double OU/KSU in the same time slot.

NU/Ohio St outdrew Texas/WVU last Saturday.

edit: And NU/Wisconsin edged out Texas/OK St the week before.

No one would really expect OU/KSU to outdraw those other two.  The NU/OSU one is surprising over WVU/TX though.

Didn't necessarily expect to outdraw them, but doubled?  By both?

And this is probably in the Twitter thread, but:

Big 12 Conference ?@Big12Conference
#Big12 FB GAME TIME ANNOUNCEMENT: Oct. 20 @kstatesports at @WVUfootball – 7:00 p.m. ET – FOX

[sonofdaxjones]

Again, it's probably going to take awhile for people to get used to Big Fox carrying regular season college football games.

[theKSU]

Well the new Fox TV package is great for getting games nationwide in High Def. Also the Fox production is far superior to anything on ABC + Gus Johnson.  Dax is right--bars are not showing a lot of these games on Fox, or it's on a TV in the corner because somebody asked for it.

Chris Fowler tweeted this a couple weeks ago--Saturday night has gotten really crowded and Saturday afternoon is getting pretty thin on the best games. ESPN is just competing against itself on a lot of these, and they're trying to get people to forget that Fox carries a game. 

[Panjandrum]

Well the new Fox TV package is great for getting games nationwide in High Def. Also the Fox production is far superior to anything on ABC + Gus Johnson.  Dax is right--bars are not showing a lot of these games on Fox, or it's on a TV in the corner because somebody asked for it.

Chris Fowler tweeted this a couple weeks ago--Saturday night has gotten really crowded and Saturday afternoon is getting pretty thin on the best games. ESPN is just competing against itself on a lot of these, and they're trying to get people to forget that Fox carries a game.

Hey, ESPN entered into the agreement.

No one really wants to go up against the SEC on CBS Saturday afternoons.  ABC does the regional coverage at that time, and the national reverse mirror games on Saturday night.

It gets really crowded when Notre Dame plays on NBC at night.  That's when it gets really bad.  Otherwise, it's a couple of games on ABC/ESPN2, an SEC or ACC game on ESPN, and a game on Fox.

[Bloodfart]

There are 4 channels on regular TV in Wichita area that broadcast games 10,12,24,& 33.  Only one of the 4 regularly shows regeonal games. 

[CyberToothCat]

Why would you rather be on ESPN than Fox? A surprising number of people do not get ESPN, but just about everybody gets Fox.

ESPN hypes up their games all week long.  When they do college football live and show replays on ESPNU and previews on SportsCenter, they talk about the games they are going to carry that weekend.  Whenever they go to or come back from a commercial break, they show a graphic that lists the upcoming ABC/ESPN games.  When they broadcast games on Thurs and Friday nights, they spend a lot of time during the game and especially halftime talking about the ABC/ESPN games that weekend.

They don't mention the ones that get carried on Fox.  The only way someone knows to even look at Fox is if they switch away from ESPN, and why would they do that? ESPN spends several hours every day talking about college football, while Fox spends an hour each Sat evening before kickoff talking about college football.

I agree that the production quality of Fox games is as good as or better than the primetime ABC/ESPN games, but the exposure level isn't even close.  If KSU and WVU both win this weekend and the KSU/WVU game were going to be on ABC the following weekend, ESPN would hype up that battle of top 5 teams like crazy.  Instead, because it will be on Fox, there will be very little discussion about the game during the week and weekend.  It will be little more than a footnote in the college football world.

RE: the number of people that get ESPN and the number that get FOX
If you are a sports fan in general and especially a college football fan, you get ESPN.  If you're not a sports fan, then it doesn't really matter if you get ESPN or FOX because you're not going to tune in anyway.

[Rage Against the McKee]

Why would you rather be on ESPN than Fox? A surprising number of people do not get ESPN, but just about everybody gets Fox.

ESPN hypes up their games all week long.  When they do college football live and show replays on ESPNU and previews on SportsCenter, they talk about the games they are going to carry that weekend.  Whenever they go to or come back from a commercial break, they show a graphic that lists the upcoming ABC/ESPN games.  When they broadcast games on Thurs and Friday nights, they spend a lot of time during the game and especially halftime talking about the ABC/ESPN games that weekend.

They don't mention the ones that get carried on Fox.  The only way someone knows to even look at Fox is if they switch away from ESPN, and why would they do that? ESPN spends several hours every day talking about college football, while Fox spends an hour each Sat evening before kickoff talking about college football.

I agree that the production quality of Fox games is as good as or better than the primetime ABC/ESPN games, but the exposure level isn't even close.  If KSU and WVU both win this weekend and the KSU/WVU game were going to be on ABC the following weekend, ESPN would hype up that battle of top 5 teams like crazy.  Instead, because it will be on Fox, there will be very little discussion about the game during the week and weekend.  It will be little more than a footnote in the college football world.

RE: the number of people that get ESPN and the number that get FOX
If you are a sports fan in general and especially a college football fan, you get ESPN.  If you're not a sports fan, then it doesn't really matter if you get ESPN or FOX because you're not going to tune in anyway.

It's true that ABC games get a ton of hype and the ratings reflect that. The Fox broadcasts have better ratings than prime time ESPN broadcasts, though.

[Ira Hayes]

KSU/WVU crushed by FSU/Miami

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/10/21/tv-ratings-saturday-florida-state-at-miami-beats-kansas-state-at-west-virgina-48-hours-flat/154058/

8:00   ABC   College Football - Florida State at Miami (8-11 PM) Live   1.7/6   4.60
FOX   College Football Kansas State at West Virginia (8-10:30PMPM) - Live   0.7/2   2.28

[MadCat]

KSU/WVU crushed by FSU/Miami

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/10/21/tv-ratings-saturday-florida-state-at-miami-beats-kansas-state-at-west-virgina-48-hours-flat/154058/

8:00   ABC   College Football - Florida State at Miami (8-11 PM) Live   1.7/6   4.60
FOX   College Football Kansas State at West Virginia (8-10:30PMPM) - Live   0.7/2   2.28

At least we beat Revolution

[Bookcat]

KSU/WVU crushed by FSU/Miami

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/10/21/tv-ratings-saturday-florida-state-at-miami-beats-kansas-state-at-west-virgina-48-hours-flat/154058/

8:00   ABC   College Football - Florida State at Miami (8-11 PM) Live   1.7/6   4.60
FOX   College Football Kansas State at West Virginia (8-10:30PMPM) - Live   0.7/2   2.28

maybe cuz our game was decided in 1.5 quarters....

[SdK]

Almost like one was a better game than the other. And almost like the combined pops of morgantown and manhattan doesn't top 100k.

[TheHamburglar]

KSU/WVU crushed by FSU/Miami

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/10/21/tv-ratings-saturday-florida-state-at-miami-beats-kansas-state-at-west-virgina-48-hours-flat/154058/

8:00   ABC   College Football - Florida State at Miami (8-11 PM) Live   1.7/6   4.60
FOX   College Football Kansas State at West Virginia (8-10:30PMPM) - Live   0.7/2   2.28

maybe cuz our game was decided in 1.5 quarters....

Any by the time that game actually kicked we were up 24-0.  Also, I think that number is misleading.  That game was regional with the other being UT/Baylor.  2 games that are regionalized will usually beat out a single game (4 fan bases to 2), especially when those two games that are getting combined into the number are in Texas and Florida.

[MadCat]

KSU/WVU crushed by FSU/Miami

http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2012/10/21/tv-ratings-saturday-florida-state-at-miami-beats-kansas-state-at-west-virgina-48-hours-flat/154058/

8:00   ABC   College Football - Florida State at Miami (8-11 PM) Live   1.7/6   4.60
FOX   College Football Kansas State at West Virginia (8-10:30PMPM) - Live   0.7/2   2.28

maybe cuz our game was decided in 1.5 quarters....

Any by the time that game actually kicked we were up 24-0.  Also, I think that number is misleading.  That game was regional with the other being UT/Baylor.  2 games that are regionalized will usually beat out a single game (4 fan bases to 2), especially when those two games that are getting combined into the number are in Texas and Florida.

Natalie Portman effect