ESPN MEDIA ZONE: Top 25 Markets for Saturday Night Football

[arbitragegls]

When we hear about TV contracts and how ACC is lagging behind in TV dollars, The ACC has ESPN's own numbers to aid in renegotiating its TV contract...and as source has indicated this is moving forward for all the reasons we already have discussed. These numbers serve to demonstrate the importance of the ACC to ESPN...and DISPROVES that the ACC lacks "eyeballs" insofar as its popularity among viewers:

TOP 25 College Football Markets Ratings (Saturday Night Games)

Birmingham, AL (SEC) 8.9Greenville, SC (ACC) 4.7Knoxville, TN (SEC) 4.6NewOrleans, LA (SEC) 3.7
Jacksonville, FL (SEC) 3.6
Columbus, OH (B1G) 3.6Atlanta, GA (ACC/SEC) 3.5OklahomaCity, OK (XII) 3.4Nashville, TN (SEC) 3.3
Memphis, TN (SEC) 3.1Austin, TX (XII) 3.1
Tulsa, OK (XII) 2.5Charlotte, NC (ACC) 2.5
LasVegas, NV (Pac) 2.5
Portland, OR (Pac) 2.3Richmond, VA (ACC) 2.3
Orland, FL (ACC/SEC) 2.2
Dayton, OH (B1G/MAC) 2.2Norfolk, VA (ACC) 2.2
Louisville, KY (ACC) 2.1
Tampa, FL (ACC/SEC) 2.1
WPalmBeach, FL (ACC) 2.0
Greensboro, NC (ACC) 2.0
Cleveland, OH (B1G)Ft Meyers, FL (ACC)

As shown, the ACC has 11 of the top 25 cities--counting Louisville also. This is not talking potential TV audience, either - these are actual viewers.

What the #s show is that the ACC has 11 top cities, the SEC has 9, the Big Ten and Big XII had 3 each, and the Pac 12 had 2 top 25 college football markets (count Atlanta, Tampa and Orlando for both the ACC and SEC).

Bottom line is that the ACC is very valuable to ESPN...and this is only one of the reasons the ACC is important to ESPN!

We survived 12/21/2012...and the ACC is going to do more than just survive...get ready for a terrific 2013!

 

[texascpa]

Jesus, do Alabamans have anything else to do on a Saturday night other than watch the Tide play a football game?

 

[oldpinepoint]

Jesus, do Alabamans have anything else to do on a Saturday night other than watch the Tide play a football game?

Roll Tide bitches, roll tide

 

[ImperialOrange]

Jesus, do Alabamans have anything else to do on a Saturday night other than watch the Tide play a football game?

No

 

[Crusty]

Looks like Americans don't watch muck other than football on Saturday night!

 

[arbitragegls]

I don't completely understand the assignment of a conference to a market. Why is Greenville SC marked ACC instead of SEC? Why are some Florida cities considered ACC/SEC while others are just ACC?

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Bees, good question...this is how ESPN Media evaluated and laid ACC claim to it...from a Macro perspective, look at it as in the ESPN rating formula, the ACC dwarfs viewership by all other conferences except for SEC...that is the biggy analysis.

 

[orange79]

Interesting that Ft. Myers (Gulf Coast of FL) is considered ACC. Any idea if that is supposed to include the Miami market? Just seems weird they would call the market Ft. Myers and not Miami (which is 1 1/2 hours away on the East coast).

 

[rrlbees]

Bees, good question...this is how ESPN Media evaluated and laid ACC claim to it...from a Macro perspective, look at it as in the ESPN rating formula, the ACC dwarfs viewership by all other conferences except for SEC...that is the biggy analysis.

I know Greenville is Clemson territory but in SC does that many more people really watch ACC than SEC and S Carolina? I know this is just ESPN but are there numbers for other networks or for day games. I think just as valuable would be seeing the whole picture. I have no numbers at all, but in total I would think more people watch the other conferences than ACC.

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[TexanMark]

What I understand Upstate SC (Greenville/Spartanburg) is pro ACC...the rest of the state is pro SEC. But SC is a mix of both.

 

[WickedOrange]

There's three types of people in Alabama. Alabama fans, Auburn fans and people who don't belong in Alabama.

 

[SyracuseMiami]

What I'd be interested in seeing is the valuation by media folks of each school. I.e. we talk abou markets so much but it's really the school and their ability to draw eyeballs in and outside their geography. For example Syracuse has a strong draw in upstate and some draw in NYC. That draw also varies based on sport. That combined with the other teams in the league, associated match ups, etc are what drive tv ratings. So I would have guessed the analysis would look more like that.

Arb, when do you think this will all culminate into an announcement. Time is not on our side. As I've found in business, folks aren't patient to let things play out and are quick to jump on the sure bet. Examples are Maryland not waiting to see what happens with the ACC renegotiation and now we see Boise doing the same with the MWC. If the ACC is to solidify itself it needs to act fast in my opinion before another school panics and gets trigger happy. A rational mind would say that all things being equal, the ACC should do well over the long term due to teams and market footprint but I'm not confident people are patient enough to let that play out.

Bees, good question...this is how ESPN Media evaluated and laid ACC claim to it...from a Macro perspective, look at it as in the ESPN rating formula, the ACC dwarfs viewership by all other conferences except for SEC...that is the biggy analysis.

 

[PeteCalvin]

Interesting that Ft. Myers (Gulf Coast of FL) is considered ACC. Any idea if that is supposed to include the Miami market? Just seems weird they would call the market Ft. Myers and not Miami (which is 1 1/2 hours away on the East coast).

Miami only watches two things: the Heat and David Caruso. They are an NBA/CSI city.

 

[PeteCalvin]

I know Greenville is Clemson territory but in SC does that many more people really watch ACC than SEC and S Carolina? I know this is just ESPN but are there numbers for other networks or for day games. I think just as valuable would be seeing the whole picture. I have no numbers at all, but in total I would think more people watch the other conferences than ACC.

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I used to spend a lot of time in Columbia, SC (home of the Gamecocks), and there were a good number of Clemson fans there too. I would say the state is probably 60-40 in favor of USC.

 

[SyracuseMiami]

Not entirely true. Went to grad school at Miami and watched the following from post probation to NC contender. The City likes winners. The Canes get back to winning, the city will follow.

Miami only watches two things: the Heat and David Caruso. They are an NBA/CSI city.

 

[IHeartSUFball]

i just want the announcement of a network ASAP...

 

[orangefog]

Jesus, do Alabamans have anything else to do on a Saturday night other than watch the Tide play a football game?

I asked my Alabama friend that question and he said "yeah, but my sister said she can wait til after the game."

 

[omniorange]

Interesting that Dayton is there. There's a proposed merger of Cincinnati's and Dayton's MSAs that could lead to a single DMA like Dallas-Ft. Worth that would bring the combined DMA to #19 in the country. If such a merger took place would a hypothetical Cincinnati-Dayton DMA still rank in the top 25? And if so, would this help the Bearcats as #16?

Cheers,
Neil

 

[Aweart23]

I know Greenville is Clemson territory but in SC does that many more people really watch ACC than SEC and S Carolina? I know this is just ESPN but are there numbers for other networks or for day games. I think just as valuable would be seeing the whole picture. I have no numbers at all, but in total I would think more people watch the other conferences than ACC.

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That Greenville DMA pulls in Greenville, Spartenburg, Clemson and Anderson SC...all Clemson country. Greenville is 30 miles from Clemson...and it's only a third of the state of SC


The DMA also includes a large chunk of western NC so you also get UNC, Wake, and NCState people ...lotta Tar Heel fans in NC

 

[omniorange]

Found the ESPN Media Zone article where Arb's data comes from:

http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-r...ll-most-viewed-college-football-series-on-tv/

There is actually 2 years of data there. Pittsburgh and Raleigh-Durham made last year's list, but not this year's. Detroit, Kansas City, and Cincinnati were on last year's list but they fell off this year as well. Louisville is new this year.

Based on this data, I think the ACC should try and make a play for Tennessee. Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis all apparently love college football. And if they don't want to do that, maybe the SEC will consider a swap, Wake for Vandy? This way the ACC can get into Tennessee and the SEC can get into North Carolina without doing any damage to either conference.

Last paragraph was written with tongue firmly in cheek.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[Guinness]

What I understand Upstate SC (Greenville/Spartanburg) is pro ACC...the rest of the state is pro SEC. But SC is a mix of both.

Considering Clemson is just outside of Greenville/Spartanburg it would stand to reason that market would be pro-ACC.

One thing to bear in mind about the Clemson/USC break down is it very much like the NCState/UNC or the VT/UVA breakdown. The technical schools attract a particular sort of person and the state flagship another. They don't really overlap and really draw state wide for both schools.

 

[mscanlo]

1% in some markets is probably bigger than 8.9% of birmingham in terms of eyeballs. but still pretty crazy, not shocking though. i am actually shocked how low these numbers are all around. i assume this does not include abc? the wwe still almost pulls these ratings on usa network on monday nights

 

[CusefanATL]

Jesus, do Alabamans have anything else to do on a Saturday night other than watch the Tide play a football game?

is there anything wrong with that?

 

[omniorange]

1% in some markets is probably bigger than 8.9% of birmingham in terms of eyeballs. but still pretty crazy, not shocking though. i am actually shocked how low these numbers are all around. i assume this does not include abc? the wwe still almost pulls these ratings on usa network on monday nights

Agreed. The highest total number of eyeballs from that chart has to be the 3.5% of Atlanta viewers.

Cheers,
Neil

 

[Crusty]

As I understand the numbers they ard broken down into share of nation's tv sets and share of those vie
viewing. Has nothing to do with the DMA.

 

[DomeStranger]

Jacksonville is at least an ACC / SEC split ... Half the folks there root for FSU ... Recently the scales have tipped to Florida though due to their recent success and Tebow.