Significant Viewership for ESPN’s January 1 Bowl Games

Based on Nielsen’s Fast National ratings, ESPN garnered significant audiences for its bowl games on January 1, led by an 11 percent increase for the two-game BCS bowl average. Additional highlights include the largest audience for any non-NFL cable program in a year (17,024,000 viewers for the Rose Bowl Game Presented by VIZIO) and a 47 percent increase in viewers for the Discover Orange Bowl.

Orange Bowl and Rose Bowl Combined
Combined, the Rose Bowl Game Presented by VIZIO and Discover Orange Bowl averaged 13,736,000 viewers based on a 9.0 coverage rating (7.7 US rating). The two-game average marks viewership and ratings increases of 11 percent (vs. 12,330,000) and 6 percent (vs. 8.5 coverage rating) over the combined average of the 2012 Rose Bowl Presented by VIZIO and Discover Orange Bowl games.

Discover Orange Bowl
ESPN’s Discover Orange Bowl telecast, No. 12 Florida State defeating No. 15 Northern Illinois 31-10, was the most-viewed program of the night – broadcast or cable – with an average of 10,562,000 viewers and a 7.1 coverage rating (6.1 US rating). The 2013 game showed viewership and ratings increases of 47 percent (vs. 7,174,000 ) and 34 percent (5.3 coverage rating) over the 2012 Orange Bowl, a 70-33 victory of No. 23 West Virginia over No. 15 Clemson.

Rose Bowl Game Presented by VIZIO
The 2013 Rose Bowl Game Presented by VIZIO stands as the most-viewed program on cable television outside of ESPN’s NFL games since the 2012 BCS National Championship. ESPN’s telecast of No. 6 Stanford defeating unranked Wisconsin 20-14 averaged 17,024,000 viewers based on a 10.9 coverage rating (9.4 US rating). The coverage is down 3 percent in viewers (vs. 17,588,000) and 8 percent in ratings (vs. 11.8 coverage rating) from the 2012 contest, which saw No. 5 Oregon defeat No. 10 Wisconsin 45-38 in the highest scoring Rose Bowl Game ever.

Capital One Bowl and Outback Bowl
The ABC and ESPN New Year’s Day early afternoon telecasts of the Capital One Bowl and Outback Bowl, respectively, garnered significant audiences, including increases over the game at the comparative time. The ABC Capital One Bowl broadcast, featuring No. 7 Georgia beating No. 16 Nebraska 45-31, averaged 10,954,000 viewers on a 6.6 US rating, marking increases of 35 percent in viewers (vs. 8,132,000) and 29 percent in ratings (vs. US 5.1 rating) over the network’s coverage of the Outback Bowl at the same time in 2012.

ESPN’s 2013 Outback Bowl telecast, No. 10 South Carolina defeating No. 18 Michigan 33-28, averaged 7,583,000 viewers on a 4.9 coverage rating (4.3 US rating). The contest marks viewership and ratings increases of 69 percent (vs. 4,499,000) and 48 percent (vs. 3.3 coverage rating) over the network’s telecast of the 2012 Capital One Bowl.

Digital Audiences
College football content on ESPN.com for New Year’s Day generated an average minute audience of nearly 24,000, up 27 percent over last year. On the Mobile Web, the average minute audience for ESPN college football content was up 21 percent over 2012, while the college football card on ESPN’s new ScoreCenter app, which re-launched last month, saw an average minute audience of more than 3,000. ESPN’s College Football app had an average minute audience of 4,000, an increase of more than 33 percent compared to last year’s ESPN Bowl Bound app.

ESPN & the BCS
ESPN’s third year of exclusive coverage of the five BCS matchups will continue tonight with the Allstate Sugar Bowl (Wednesday, Jan. 2), Tostitos Fiesta Bowl (Thursday, Jan. 3) and Discover BCS National Championship Game (Monday, Jan. 7). Overall, ESPN, ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes and WatchESPN will present all five BCS Bowl games with ESPN 3D also televising Allstate Sugar Bowl and Discover BCS National Championship Game.

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