The following is a comparison of TV ratings first by time slot on ESPN and then by bowl game for the new CFP/New Year's 6 Bowls and the same bowls under the BCS system.
Both comparisons show pretty dramatic increases under the new format.
(This post was last modified: 01-21-2015 02:53 PM by orangefan.)
(01-21-2015 03:59 PM)buffdog Wrote: So basically sports fans like playoffs to determine championships vs. exhibitions.
Network execs have already known this, they have been pushing college football more towards the NFL mold for awhile now. It doesn't seem to be in a manner of making it identical as that would be a terrible marketing scheme.
Conference Tournaments will happen, the Networks will pay for it and money rules right now.
Unfortunately though, the negative side affect of all this is that The Age of the Bowls is over. It's not that they will stop, too much money in them for that. The pageantry and attention upon them will dramatically decrease.
(01-21-2015 02:51 PM)orangefan Wrote: The following is a comparison of TV ratings first by time slot on ESPN and then by bowl game for the new CFP/New Year's 6 Bowls and the same bowls under the BCS system.
Both comparisons show pretty dramatic increases under the new format.
Looks like the Peach, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls saw big declines.
Doesn't look like anyone out there viewed the Peach or Fiesta as "real" major bowls.
(This post was last modified: 01-22-2015 09:40 AM by quo vadis.)
(01-21-2015 04:01 PM)stever20 Wrote: i think the next 2 years will be more telling, with the SF on NYE.
Yes, that will be interesting. If ratings are disappointing, I could see the CFP tweaking things a little. They would never move the Rose Bowl from NYD but I could see them changing it to have 1 semifinal on NYE and 1 SF on NYD. Otherwise everything will seem anti-climatic.
(01-21-2015 04:01 PM)stever20 Wrote: i think the next 2 years will be more telling, with the SF on NYE.
Yes, that will be interesting. If ratings are disappointing, I could see the CFP tweaking things a little. They would never move the Rose Bowl from NYD but I could see them changing it to have 1 semifinal on NYE and 1 SF on NYD. Otherwise everything will seem anti-climatic.
They'll never change to 1 on NYE and 1 on NYD. Competitive issues making it where teams have within 4 hours the same amount of rest between sf and f.
(01-21-2015 02:51 PM)orangefan Wrote: The following is a comparison of TV ratings first by time slot on ESPN and then by bowl game for the new CFP/New Year's 6 Bowls and the same bowls under the BCS system.
Both comparisons show pretty dramatic increases under the new format.
Looks like the Peach, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls saw big declines.
Doesn't look like anyone out there viewed the Peach or Fiesta as "real" major bowls.
It's the time slot. They lose so many TV viewers by playing "major" games on Dec. 31. And they'll lose even more by playing semifinals on Dec. 31 next season. The benchmark TV ratings for semifinals were set with this year's games -- a semifinal should get about a 15 rating. We'll see just how far below that they fall on Dec. 31.
I'll say it again: Next season, Jan. 2 falls on a Saturday and there are no NFL games that day. The CFP ought to wise up and play next season's "Dec. 31" games, including the two semifinals, on Saturday Jan. 2.
(01-21-2015 02:51 PM)orangefan Wrote: The following is a comparison of TV ratings first by time slot on ESPN and then by bowl game for the new CFP/New Year's 6 Bowls and the same bowls under the BCS system.
Both comparisons show pretty dramatic increases under the new format.
Looks like the Peach, Orange, and Fiesta Bowls saw big declines.
Doesn't look like anyone out there viewed the Peach or Fiesta as "real" major bowls.
I would have loved to watch them, but I was at work.
I don't understand the Peach Bowl ratings. You would think having the first top 10 match-up in about 10 years would have been a ratings winner. Yet the Auburn / Virginia match-up of unranked teams back in 2011 had better ratings than this years TCU / Mississippi match-up. Must have been the other games to watch at that time.
A couple of ideas to boost the ratings further within the same format:
- Always play the SF on NYD. In years when the Rose is not an SF, Play one SF at 1 and the other at 8. The problem with this is that the Citrus and Outback do pretty well on ABC and ESPN2 respectively. The Citrus scored a 3.6 and the Outback a 3.8. They would have to be moved if an SF were played at 1.
- Move the 1 pm NYE game to January 2 in prime time. That's a really weak time slot and January 2 has historically been a pretty good time slot for BCS games. ESPN could plug in a strong non-CFP bowl into the early afternoon NYE slot and probably come close to matching what the Peach did this year.
- In combination with the move of one game to 1/2, move the other NYE games to earlier kickoff times, say 3 pm and 7 pm.
(This post was last modified: 01-22-2015 01:02 PM by orangefan.)
(01-21-2015 04:01 PM)stever20 Wrote: i think the next 2 years will be more telling, with the SF on NYE.
Yes, that will be interesting. If ratings are disappointing, I could see the CFP tweaking things a little. They would never move the Rose Bowl from NYD but I could see them changing it to have 1 semifinal on NYE and 1 SF on NYD. Otherwise everything will seem anti-climatic.
They'll never change to 1 on NYE and 1 on NYD. Competitive issues making it where teams have within 4 hours the same amount of rest between sf and f.
As long as the NCG is at least 8 days later for both teams, I can't see a 1 day difference in the semifinals being that big of deal. If it was only 6-7 days, then it is more of an issue.
Even more startling is that the ratings from the current year are somewhat inflated both because of the "newness" factor, and the fact that compared to previous year, it has two less teams, meaning the 2013 and 2014 versions were more watered down (had 14 teams playing 7 games as opposed to 12 teams playing seven games). The 12 and 13 versions also included two champions of leagues that are now G5.
Wedge Wrote:4-team playoff = 3 games with monster TV ratings.
8-team playoff = 7 games with monster TV ratings.
Just sayin'.
The one thing that is hard to tell in this picture is if more playoff games would mean a diluted rating (as seen with the ratings of the other four bowls ALL going down) meaning you don't get 7 games with monster ratings (note divisional round NFL games do not get near the ratings as the NFC or AFC championship games), or if the ratings will trend higher because the games "matter" or because they have more big name teams (8 teams to play 7 games is a lot less watered down than 12 or 14 teams).
(This post was last modified: 01-22-2015 01:21 PM by adcorbett.)
(01-22-2015 01:17 PM)adcorbett Wrote: (note divisional round NFL games do not get near the ratings as the NFC or AFC championship games)
This year, the Sunday NFL divisional round games got ratings almost as good as the conference championship games. Saturday divisional game ratings were lower than Sunday, but they always are.
Sunday divisional games
Cowboys/Packers 44.4 M viewers
Colts/Broncos 41.8 M
Conference championship games
Packers/Seahawks 49.8 M
Colts/Patriots 42.1 M
avg ratings 2012-13 was 8.03
avg ratings 2013-14 was 8.04
avg ratings 2014-15 was 9.54
that's a very big jump- nearly 20%. You say well 4 of the games were down. True- but ESPN I'm sure sold ads for the playoff as a whole and not piecemeal. You couldn't just get an ad for the Sugar Bowl and that's it.
(01-22-2015 12:53 PM)Danger in Carolina Wrote: I don't understand the Peach Bowl ratings. You would think having the first top 10 match-up in about 10 years would have been a ratings winner. Yet the Auburn / Virginia match-up of unranked teams back in 2011 had better ratings than this years TCU / Mississippi match-up. Must have been the other games to watch at that time.
Might be because the Peach Bowl was an incredibly boring slaughter this year.
