AAC Final outrates Big East Final. By 333%.

[zls44]

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/201...-championship-overnights-low-trounced-by-acc/


The Wildcats’ win had a lower overnight than every college basketball telecast on CBS and ESPN over the weekend (12 telecasts).

 

[UConn990411]

But...but...the TV contracts!!!!!!!!!

 

[CTGoonie]

"The game was trounced head-to-head by the ACC championship game on ESPN (2.3) and also earned a substantially lower overnight than the championship of the American Athletic Conference — the ‘old’ Big East — the following day (1.3)."

No doubt the AAC final was highly rated because it was Uconn. If it was SMU vs. Tulsa....

 

[HartbeatHusky]

"The game was trounced head-to-head by the ACC championship game on ESPN (2.3) and also earned a substantially lower overnight than the championship of the American Athletic Conference — the ‘old’ Big East — the following day (1.3)."

No doubt the AAC final was highly rated because it was Uconn. If it was SMU vs. Tulsa....

I actually think SMU has proven to have some drawing power. As much as I hate them right now, I think they've proven to be a decent conference mate. If they can continue being a hot ticket in Dallas, they'll be okay.

 

[The Funster]

Right, so lets scrap FB and beg the NBE to take us back!

 

[Fishy]

That is a problem that Fox and the Big East are going to have to sort out in a hurry.

Villanova is a top-five team and probably as close as anything they have to a national program and they still didn't draw.

 

[Kolumbo]

The only value that conference has left is Nova, G'town, and perhaps St. John's if it ever gets back to being the very old SJU. Trying to replace UCONN, Cincy, Pitt, Syracuse, Louisville, and even ND with more scattered Catholics...there is no comparison. The only gripe I had with Aresco is he should have kept the Big East name and MSG for a couple years if only to shove it up the C-7's...you know.

Wait a minute. Providence-Creighton in 2014 scored higher than Nova-Xavier in 2015? Big troubles indeed.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

Look at all the respect that 1.3 garnered the AAC with the selection committee.

BTW, the Big East has b-slapped any Pac 12 broadcasts on Fox Sports. Are you arguing that the Pac 12's demise is imminent too?

 

[nelsonmuntz]

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/201...-championship-overnights-low-trounced-by-acc/


The Wildcats’ win had a lower overnight than every college basketball telecast on CBS and ESPN over the weekend (12 telecasts).

You do bring up a good point. If a 0.3 is worth $4.5MM per school, why isn't ESPN paying the AAC 4 times that for the great ratings they are pulling in for ESPN?

 

[Vuce]

You do bring up a good point. If a 0.3 is worth $4.5MM per school, why isn't ESPN paying the AAC 4 times that for the great ratings they are pulling in for ESPN?

My understanding was that Espn had the option to simply match the best offer made by another outlet. That was part of the contract. So when NBCSN low balled the AAC Espn just said they would pay the peanuts it took to retain the rights. It's like an MLB rookie who comes up, the team has a few years to pay him minimal money before they have to negotiate a contract. Why would Espn pay any more than they had to? NBCSN was never serious about it and it hurt the league big time. The AAC won't get mega dollars but they will do better than the current $$ when this deal is up.

 

[CL82]

My understanding was that Espn had the option to simply match the best offer made by another outlet. That was part of the contract. So when NBCSN low balled the AAC Espn just said they would pay the peanuts it took to retain the rights. It's like an MLB rookie who comes up, the team has a few years to pay him minimal money before they have to negotiate a contract. Why would Espn pay any more than they had to? NBCSN was never serious about it and it hurt the league big time. The AAC won't get mega dollars but they will do better than the current $$ when this deal is up.

I think NBCSN tactic was bid low in price but high in coverage to make the package unattractive to ESPN. Either that or ESPN did an in the margins deal to make up it up to them down the road to keep the $$ low.

 

[The Funster]

You do bring up a good point. If a 0.3 is worth $4.5MM per school, why isn't ESPN paying the AAC 4 times that for the great ratings they are pulling in for ESPN?

You're smarter than that. You know the reasons. They don't fit your current narrative so you are ignoring them.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

This is as much a Fox Sports 1 is a disaster problem as it is a Big East problem.

 

[Rumrunner]

This putative competition between the Big East and AAC is like watching a wrestling match between two midgets. At the end of the match, it really won't matter because as soon as one of the victors raises his hand, a big person will pull a lever and open up a trap door and plunge both into the land of eternal suckitude of little people.

 

[itgoeslike]

BTW, the Big East has b-slapped any Pac 12 broadcasts on Fox Sports. Are you arguing that the Pac 12's demise is imminent too?

No, the PAC has football. If they were a basketball-only conference they would be screwed. BTW the NBE isn't "b-slapping" anyone when it comes to ratings. Forget about FS-1/2, they can't even draw on the Fox network.

 

[Nostical]

That TV rating was all about UConn. The AAC and ESPN lucked out with the UConn victory over Tulsa. They got the AAC POY vs Preseason POY. They got a full house at the XL and a story line of whether UConn could win therir way into the tournament. Had Tulsa won there would have been crickets in the arena watching a game between Who Dat and Who Cares. The ability of UConn to move the needle for both its Men's and Women's BB programs does not go unoticed in a certain Midwestern conference office.

 

[MattMang23]

Like I have said on more than one occasion: The only reason this conference is considered "major" by the likes of USA Today and others is because we are in it. No one else in this league is considered a "major" with the possible exception of Cincinnati who has only been considered a "major" for less than ten years. It's UConn and the ten dwarfs.

 

[Adios]

That TV rating was all about UConn. The AAC and ESPN lucked out with the UConn victory over Tulsa. They got the AAC POY vs Preseason POY. They got a full house at the XL and a story line of whether UConn could win therir way into the tournament. Had Tulsa won there would have been crickets in the arena watching a game between Who Dat and Who Cares. The ability of UConn to move the needle for both its Men's and Women's BB programs does not go unoticed in a certain Midwestern conference office.

We have fans who wear Zubaz pants. I am all for the Alabama-like 15% vs 85% stuff now!

 

[Kolumbo]

Look at all the respect that 1.3 garnered the AAC with the selection committee.

BTW, the Big East has b-slapped any Pac 12 broadcasts on Fox Sports. Are you arguing that the Pac 12's demise is imminent too?

Why would the 1.3 have any effect on the selection committee? The AAC stinks. UCONN was abysmal on offense, torture to watch, and still made it to the championship game. That's how bad the conference is.

 

[businesslawyer]

1. The numbers show far, far more about Fox Sports and the hole they have dug themselves than they do about the Big East. That having been said, the contract is so long term, and so expensive, I don't see how this is good for us in that it's not like Fox is going to write the Big Ten or the Big XII a check to get us to help their basketball seasons -- it's still stuck with the Big East in any event. They just have to promote it more and better, give it time and hope.

2. Having said that, the material year to year decrease in the championship game numbers for the Big East is a huge problem, as the most logical interpretation is that as people realize that the Big East is no longer really the Big East, any habitual tendency to want to watch the game will fade.

3. Which is why the correct analysis was Rumrunner's. The long-term difference between the Big EAst and the American (or the A-Ten or the Valley) is minimal. Yes, short term money is better than no short term money and yes, more geographic cohesion is only beneficial, but those aren't the issues. The issue is can we get into the ACC or Big Ten before or when the total separation of the P-5 occurs. And the path we are on is still, by light years, the way that maximizes the odds that we do (and pointing out that you don't think we will ever move up or that we don't know we will move up doesn't change the fact that we have no better option than playing the game out to the bitter end).

 

[Carl Spackler]

That TV rating was all about UConn. The AAC and ESPN lucked out with the UConn victory over Tulsa. They got the AAC POY vs Preseason POY. They got a full house at the XL and a story line of whether UConn could win therir way into the tournament. Had Tulsa won there would have been crickets in the arena watching a game between Who Dat and Who Cares. The ability of UConn to move the needle for both its Men's and Women's BB programs does not go unoticed in a certain Midwestern conference office.

Absolutely. ALL about UCONN. My guess, is that had Tulsa and SMU been playing, the TV draw would still have been better comparably to others, simply because of the time slot, national exposure on ESPN with selection committee coming up. Would have been interesting to see what it would have done in Hartford/New Haven too, simply by UCONN fans that had time to watch, and like a bad car wreck, simply wouldn't be able to look away because we are driving the same road as those teams for now.

I wonder if you know your last statement to be fact, or is it just opinion? I would hope that our university leadership has a certain commissioner and league offices on speed dial with pertinent information regularly.

Why? It's just blindingly obvious that if the Big 10 network would like significant market share in the Northeast corridor, in the NYC demographic for anything beyond a few Saturdays every fall, the UCONN men's and women's basketball programs will make their network relevant for many, many nights and weekends through the winter and into the spring. I don't like the 6:00 and 9:30 time slots on ESPN. Playing 7:30 games on the Big 10 network regularly?

It's just mind numbing, that it hasn't happened. The university, as both an academic and athletic institution is a fit for the Big10. Football is the primary financial driving force in intercollegiate athletics, and we've shown that we can sell tickets, and we are more than willing to expand the football stadium to accommodate quality Big10 opponents. Our stadium would not be the smallest in that league. We have an up and coming hockey program, that plays in a historically hockey town.

Oh well. Out of my control. Just hope the people that can control such things, are engaged and working toward it.

 

[B1GOSU]

If the Big East can't draw ratings for Fox, just think how much $$$$ Fox will offer the B1G when the B1G opens contract negotiations in the next couple years. Fox will be desperate for college athletic ratings at that point.

 

[nelsonmuntz]

I don't suspect you geniuses who are rooting for FoxSports to fail realize the implications of only having ESPN as a bidder for the AAC, which is amazing given what the league went through with the NBC Sports low ball bid. It is like UConn fans are rooting for UConn to fail.

 

[CTMike]

I don't suspect you geniuses who are rooting for FoxSports to fail realize the implications of only having ESPN as a bidder for the AAC, which is amazing given what the league went through with the NBC Sports low ball bid. It is like UConn fans are rooting for UConn to fail.

Only you.

 

[Stray_Dog]

I don't suspect you geniuses who are rooting for FoxSports to fail realize the implications of only having ESPN as a bidder for the AAC, which is amazing given what the league went through with the NBC Sports low ball bid. It is like UConn fans are rooting for UConn to fail.

Did I miss something? Who on here said, "I want FOX 1 to fail?" - and it is an arbitrary I - not to imply me.

I do believe that most of us on here do like knowing that the New Big East is struggling with ratings. And Fox1 will weather this storm of a contract they have with the NBE. But are we glad that their ratings are low? Absolutely! Now why would some of us feel that way? Well it is in my opinion that low ratings in the NBE can be attributed to the lack of participation from those schools no longer part of the NBE. Not only those schools that left for the ACC but also for schools like UConn. It may mean that FOX 1 is likely to have to double down if they want to be a player in anything sports with larger investments/contracts to attract other sports to sign-up with them.

(the following is my opinion: An aside not having to do with FOX 1 or any specific network but certainly a player on the war on viewership Now with apple looking to get into TV....well cable boxes....may be like the type-writer GONE!!!)