Next on the ratings threads, I decided to look at the ND-ACC scheduling alliance results. Since the actual alliance didn't start until 2014 this is only for 2014-2018 unlike the other ratings thread that were from 2013-2018. There are 25 games in total which makes sense since the agreement is for 5 games a year although 2014 had only 4 games to start so the following year 2015 had 6 games. The missing year 2013 only had one ACC team on the schedule which was Pitt.

2014 - ND vs FSU - 13.250 ABC
2015 - ND vs Clem - 7.647 ABC
2017 - ND vs Miami - 6.727 ABC
2015 - ND vs UVA - 5.744 ABC
2018 - ND vs VT - 4.473 ABC
2014 - ND vs SU - 4.05 ABC
2015 - ND vs Pitt - 3.844 ABC
2016 - ND vs NCST - 3.720 ABC
2015 - GT vs ND - 3.700 NBC
2014 - UNC vs ND - 3.190 NBC
2018 - FSU vs ND - 3.173 NBC
2014 - UL vs ND - 3.090 NBC
2018 - SU vs ND - 2.873 NBC
2018 - Pitt vs ND - 2.849 NBC
2016 - Miami vs ND - 2.634 NBC
2016 - Duke vs ND - 2.627 NBC
2017 - NCST vs ND - 2.625 NBC
2017 - ND vs UNC - 2.510 ABC
2016 - VT vs ND - 2.449 NBC
2018 - ND vs Wake - 2.439 ABC
2016 - ND vs SU - 2.104 ESPN
2015 - BC vs ND - 1.986 NBCSN
2015 - Wake vs ND - 1.942 NBC
2017 - Wake vs ND - 1.903 NBC
2017 - ND vs BC - 1.850 ESPN

25 games - 93.399 million viewers total - 3.736 average

Of the Top 12 games, 9 of them were between 2014-2016 despite the Irish being a combined 21-15 in this period and only three were in 2017/2018 when the Irish have been 21-3. Although 4 of the 12 were from 2015 when the Irish were 10-2 which makes the 5 games in 2014 and 2016 interesting since the Irish were 11-13 in those years.

What does the above mean? Probably not enough data to support any conclusions at this time, but it will be interesting to track this over the next 5 years to see if a trend develops.

Not surprising the top 8 games on the list were all shown on ABC. And truly the only respectable game close to the overall average that NBC had was the 2015 match-up against Georgia Tech.

Just the ABC games themselves average 5.404 million viewers. Add in the two ESPN games and the average "drops" to a mere 4.863 million viewers.

Meanwhile the twelve NBC games average 2.755 million viewers. The disparity is mostly explained away by the fact that most of the NBC games tend to be mid-afternoon games bucking not only the powerhouse CBS SEC games, but the ABC, FOX, and ESPN games as well. The ND games controlled by ABC/ESPN tend to be night games.

This shows me that ND is probably leaving a lot of money on the table in order to ensure national tv broadcasts at the mid-afternoon time slot on a consistent basis. I wonder if ABC/ESPN will ever cede to this demand should the Irish decide to test the open market in the future?

Cheers,
Neil

(12-20-2018 05:28 PM)OrangeDude Wrote:  Next on the ratings threads, I decided to look at the ND-ACC scheduling alliance results. Since the actual alliance didn't start until 2014 this is only for 2014-2018 unlike the other ratings thread that were from 2013-2018. There are 25 games in total which makes sense since the agreement is for 5 games a year although 2014 had only 4 games to start so the following year 2015 had 6 games. The missing year 2013 only had one ACC team on the schedule which was Pitt.

2014 - ND vs FSU - 13.250 ABC
2015 - ND vs Clem - 7.647 ABC
2017 - ND vs Miami - 6.727 ABC
2015 - ND vs UVA - 5.744 ABC
2018 - ND vs VT - 4.473 ABC
2014 - ND vs SU - 4.05 ABC
2015 - ND vs Pitt - 3.844 ABC
2016 - ND vs NCST - 3.720 ABC
2015 - GT vs ND - 3.700 NBC
2014 - UNC vs ND - 3.190 NBC
2018 - FSU vs ND - 3.173 NBC
2014 - UL vs ND - 3.090 NBC
2018 - SU vs ND - 2.873 NBC
2018 - Pitt vs ND - 2.849 NBC
2016 - Miami vs ND - 2.634 NBC
2016 - Duke vs ND - 2.627 NBC
2017 - NCST vs ND - 2.625 NBC
2017 - ND vs UNC - 2.510 ABC
2016 - VT vs ND - 2.449 NBC
2018 - ND vs Wake - 2.439 ABC
2016 - ND vs SU - 2.104 ESPN
2015 - BC vs ND - 1.986 NBCSN
2015 - Wake vs ND - 1.942 NBC
2017 - Wake vs ND - 1.903 NBC
2017 - ND vs BC - 1.850 ESPN

25 games - 93.399 million viewers total - 3.736 average

Of the Top 12 games, 9 of them were between 2014-2016 despite the Irish being a combined 21-15 in this period and only three were in 2017/2018 when the Irish have been 21-3. Although 4 of the 12 were from 2015 when the Irish were 10-2 which makes the 5 games in 2014 and 2016 interesting since the Irish were 11-13 in those years.

What does the above mean? Probably not enough data to support any conclusions at this time, but it will be interesting to track this over the next 5 years to see if a trend develops.

Not surprising the top 8 games on the list were all shown on ABC. And truly the only respectable game close to the overall average that NBC had was the 2015 match-up against Georgia Tech.

Just the ACC games themselves average 5.404 million viewers. Add in the two ESPN games and the average "drops" to a mere 4.863 million viewers.

Meanwhile the twelve NBC games average 2.755 million viewers. The disparity is mostly explained away by the fact that most of the NBC games tend to be mid-afternoon games bucking not only the powerhouse CBS SEC games, but the ABC, FOX, and ESPN games as well. The ND games controlled by ABC/ESPN tend to be night games.

This shows me that ND is probably leaving a lot of money on the table in order to ensure national tv broadcasts at the mid-afternoon time slot on a consistent basis. I wonder if ABC/ESPN will ever cede to this demand should the Irish decide to test the open market in the future?

Cheers,
Neil

The ABC vs. NBC disparity jumps right off the page! Having watched both, it seems to me that ABC promotes those ND/ACC games like crazy - but NBC not so much (in fact, I'm not sure NBC promotes any Notre Dame games all that much).

Using ABC Average = 5.440M, and NBC Average = 2.695M, we can ratio each school against the average for the network to try to compare apples to apples...


Interesting that ABC ratios follow the most popular national brands (e.g. FSU, Clemson and Miami all above average), whereas the NBC broadcasts do not (but Clemson has yet to play at Notre Dame on NBC).

Not sure what it means - probably that we don't have enough data yet.

(12-20-2018 07:00 PM)Hokie Mark Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 05:28 PM)OrangeDude Wrote:  Next on the ratings threads, I decided to look at the ND-ACC scheduling alliance results. Since the actual alliance didn't start until 2014 this is only for 2014-2018 unlike the other ratings thread that were from 2013-2018. There are 25 games in total which makes sense since the agreement is for 5 games a year although 2014 had only 4 games to start so the following year 2015 had 6 games. The missing year 2013 only had one ACC team on the schedule which was Pitt.

2014 - ND vs FSU - 13.250 ABC
2015 - ND vs Clem - 7.647 ABC
2017 - ND vs Miami - 6.727 ABC
2015 - ND vs UVA - 5.744 ABC
2018 - ND vs VT - 4.473 ABC
2014 - ND vs SU - 4.05 ABC
2015 - ND vs Pitt - 3.844 ABC
2016 - ND vs NCST - 3.720 ABC
2015 - GT vs ND - 3.700 NBC
2014 - UNC vs ND - 3.190 NBC
2018 - FSU vs ND - 3.173 NBC
2014 - UL vs ND - 3.090 NBC
2018 - SU vs ND - 2.873 NBC
2018 - Pitt vs ND - 2.849 NBC
2016 - Miami vs ND - 2.634 NBC
2016 - Duke vs ND - 2.627 NBC
2017 - NCST vs ND - 2.625 NBC
2017 - ND vs UNC - 2.510 ABC
2016 - VT vs ND - 2.449 NBC
2018 - ND vs Wake - 2.439 ABC
2016 - ND vs SU - 2.104 ESPN
2015 - BC vs ND - 1.986 NBCSN
2015 - Wake vs ND - 1.942 NBC
2017 - Wake vs ND - 1.903 NBC
2017 - ND vs BC - 1.850 ESPN

25 games - 93.399 million viewers total - 3.736 average

Of the Top 12 games, 9 of them were between 2014-2016 despite the Irish being a combined 21-15 in this period and only three were in 2017/2018 when the Irish have been 21-3. Although 4 of the 12 were from 2015 when the Irish were 10-2 which makes the 5 games in 2014 and 2016 interesting since the Irish were 11-13 in those years.

What does the above mean? Probably not enough data to support any conclusions at this time, but it will be interesting to track this over the next 5 years to see if a trend develops.

Not surprising the top 8 games on the list were all shown on ABC. And truly the only respectable game close to the overall average that NBC had was the 2015 match-up against Georgia Tech.

Just the ACC games themselves average 5.404 million viewers. Add in the two ESPN games and the average "drops" to a mere 4.863 million viewers.

Meanwhile the twelve NBC games average 2.755 million viewers. The disparity is mostly explained away by the fact that most of the NBC games tend to be mid-afternoon games bucking not only the powerhouse CBS SEC games, but the ABC, FOX, and ESPN games as well. The ND games controlled by ABC/ESPN tend to be night games.

This shows me that ND is probably leaving a lot of money on the table in order to ensure national tv broadcasts at the mid-afternoon time slot on a consistent basis. I wonder if ABC/ESPN will ever cede to this demand should the Irish decide to test the open market in the future?

Cheers,
Neil

The ABC vs. NBC disparity jumps right off the page! Having watched both, it seems to me that ABC promotes those ND/ACC games like crazy - but NBC not so much (in fact, I'm not sure NBC promotes any Notre Dame games all that much).

Using ABC Average = 5.440M, and NBC Average = 2.695M, we can ratio each school against the average for the network to try to compare apples to apples...

PHP Code:

ACC    ABC    NBC
BC        
Clem    1.41    ---
Duke    ---    0.97
FSU    2.44    1.18
GT    ---    1.37
Lou    ---    1.15
UM    1.24    0.98
NCS    0.68    0.97
Pitt    0.71    1.06
SU    0.74    1.07
UNC    0.46    1.18
UVA    1.06    ---
VT    0.82    0.91
WF    0.45    0.72 


Interesting that ABC ratios follow the most popular national brands (e.g. FSU, Clemson and Miami all above average), whereas the NBC broadcasts do not (but Clemson has yet to play at Notre Dame on NBC).

Not sure what it means - probably that we don't have enough data yet.

Slight correction in order to ensure apples to apples comparison, your NBC average includes the NBCSN game against BC. Doubt it impacts your analysis much, but just thought it should be consistent. I spotted this because I have the data separated out ABC vs NBC and ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 (although no ESPN2 games) vs NBC/NBCSN.

Cheers,
Neil

(12-20-2018 05:28 PM)OrangeDude Wrote:  Next on the ratings threads, I decided to look at the ND-ACC scheduling alliance results. Since the actual alliance didn't start until 2014 this is only for 2014-2018 unlike the other ratings thread that were from 2013-2018. There are 25 games in total which makes sense since the agreement is for 5 games a year although 2014 had only 4 games to start so the following year 2015 had 6 games. The missing year 2013 only had one ACC team on the schedule which was Pitt.

2014 - ND vs FSU - 13.250 ABC
2015 - ND vs Clem - 7.647 ABC
2017 - ND vs Miami - 6.727 ABC
2015 - ND vs UVA - 5.744 ABC
2018 - ND vs VT - 4.473 ABC
2014 - ND vs SU - 4.05 ABC
2015 - ND vs Pitt - 3.844 ABC
2016 - ND vs NCST - 3.720 ABC
2015 - GT vs ND - 3.700 NBC
2014 - UNC vs ND - 3.190 NBC
2018 - FSU vs ND - 3.173 NBC
2014 - UL vs ND - 3.090 NBC
2018 - SU vs ND - 2.873 NBC
2018 - Pitt vs ND - 2.849 NBC
2016 - Miami vs ND - 2.634 NBC
2016 - Duke vs ND - 2.627 NBC
2017 - NCST vs ND - 2.625 NBC
2017 - ND vs UNC - 2.510 ABC
2016 - VT vs ND - 2.449 NBC
2018 - ND vs Wake - 2.439 ABC
2016 - ND vs SU - 2.104 ESPN
2015 - BC vs ND - 1.986 NBCSN
2015 - Wake vs ND - 1.942 NBC
2017 - Wake vs ND - 1.903 NBC
2017 - ND vs BC - 1.850 ESPN

25 games - 93.399 million viewers total - 3.736 average

Of the Top 12 games, 9 of them were between 2014-2016 despite the Irish being a combined 21-15 in this period and only three were in 2017/2018 when the Irish have been 21-3. Although 4 of the 12 were from 2015 when the Irish were 10-2 which makes the 5 games in 2014 and 2016 interesting since the Irish were 11-13 in those years.

What does the above mean? Probably not enough data to support any conclusions at this time, but it will be interesting to track this over the next 5 years to see if a trend develops.

Not surprising the top 8 games on the list were all shown on ABC. And truly the only respectable game close to the overall average that NBC had was the 2015 match-up against Georgia Tech.

Just the ABC games themselves average 5.404 million viewers. Add in the two ESPN games and the average "drops" to a mere 4.863 million viewers.

Meanwhile the twelve NBC games average 2.755 million viewers. The disparity is mostly explained away by the fact that most of the NBC games tend to be mid-afternoon games bucking not only the powerhouse CBS SEC games, but the ABC, FOX, and ESPN games as well. The ND games controlled by ABC/ESPN tend to be night games.

This shows me that ND is probably leaving a lot of money on the table in order to ensure national tv broadcasts at the mid-afternoon time slot on a consistent basis. I wonder if ABC/ESPN will ever cede to this demand should the Irish decide to test the open market in the future?

Cheers,
Neil

ND is 22-3 in the past two years.... :)

The Irish fought NBC on the night games. The contract specifically limits the number of prime time games.

ND's Administration didn't want too many prime time home games because they feared the fans would drink too much and become too rowdy....I am not joking.

They like afternoon games much better, even if it costs them money (even if CR is that they are "greedy")

They don't mind the ABC prime time games......because those are away games and they have no control over them. Plus, they don't have to worry about too many drunken fans on their campus.

I don't think that ND will ever test the open market. They have been with NBC since 1991 and are comfortable with the relationship.

Remember, ND did not test the open market and signed a ten year extension with NBC (at a time when TV contracts were going up) for the 2015-25 time frame.

That contract was twice the length of every contract term before it since 1991. That tells me that ND is rock solid in favor of the NBC relationship.

(They also want every single home game nationally televised. NBC is happy to do that. Would ABC dedicate Saturday afternoon to exclusively ND games when it plays at home? I doubt it)

(12-21-2018 07:53 AM)TerryD Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 05:28 PM)OrangeDude Wrote:  Not surprising the top 8 games on the list were all shown on ABC. And truly the only respectable game close to the overall average that NBC had was the 2015 match-up against Georgia Tech.

Just the ABC games themselves average 5.404 million viewers. Add in the two ESPN games and the average "drops" to a mere 4.863 million viewers.

Meanwhile the twelve NBC games average 2.755 million viewers. The disparity is mostly explained away by the fact that most of the NBC games tend to be mid-afternoon games bucking not only the powerhouse CBS SEC games, but the ABC, FOX, and ESPN games as well. The ND games controlled by ABC/ESPN tend to be night games.

This shows me that ND is probably leaving a lot of money on the table in order to ensure national tv broadcasts at the mid-afternoon time slot on a consistent basis. I wonder if ABC/ESPN will ever cede to this demand should the Irish decide to test the open market in the future?

Cheers,
Neil

ND is 22-3 in the past two years....

The Irish fought NBC on the night games. The contract specifically limits the number of prime time games.

ND's Administration didn't want too many prime time home games because they feared the fans would drink too much and become too rowdy....I am not joking.

They like afternoon games much better, even if it costs them money (even if CR is that they are "greedy")

Hail TerryD!

Thanks for confirming what I suspected. What was up with the three 2:30 PM games this year? Was this a trial basis for some reason? Trying to get a jump start on the extremely tough 3:30 time slot perhaps?

Cheers,
Neil

(12-21-2018 08:43 AM)OrangeDude Wrote:  

(12-21-2018 07:53 AM)TerryD Wrote:  

(12-20-2018 05:28 PM)OrangeDude Wrote:  Not surprising the top 8 games on the list were all shown on ABC. And truly the only respectable game close to the overall average that NBC had was the 2015 match-up against Georgia Tech.

Just the ABC games themselves average 5.404 million viewers. Add in the two ESPN games and the average "drops" to a mere 4.863 million viewers.

Meanwhile the twelve NBC games average 2.755 million viewers. The disparity is mostly explained away by the fact that most of the NBC games tend to be mid-afternoon games bucking not only the powerhouse CBS SEC games, but the ABC, FOX, and ESPN games as well. The ND games controlled by ABC/ESPN tend to be night games.

This shows me that ND is probably leaving a lot of money on the table in order to ensure national tv broadcasts at the mid-afternoon time slot on a consistent basis. I wonder if ABC/ESPN will ever cede to this demand should the Irish decide to test the open market in the future?

Cheers,
Neil

ND is 22-3 in the past two years....

The Irish fought NBC on the night games. The contract specifically limits the number of prime time games.

ND's Administration didn't want too many prime time home games because they feared the fans would drink too much and become too rowdy....I am not joking.

They like afternoon games much better, even if it costs them money (even if CR is that they are "greedy")

Hail TerryD!

Thanks for confirming what I suspected. What was up with the three 2:30 PM games this year? Was this a trial basis for some reason? Trying to get a jump start on the extremely tough 3:30 time slot perhaps?

Cheers,
Neil

No Eye Deer.

I think that ND prefers the 2:30 slot over 3:30, generally.

Gets the fans to Mass on campus after the game before it is too dark...