Big East TV viewership limited but promising

[DudeAnon]

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/co ... /79530200/

A lot of quotes from Fox Sports and Big East officials. Here is the heart of it.

“Maybe not a huge amount in actual numbers, but in percentage terms, that’s pretty good,” said Michael Mulvihill, a senior vice president for programming and research.

Fox is up against the behemoth that is ESPN. Of 669 games last season on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNews, average viewership was 448,000.

Mulvihill conceded FS1 is televising so many games that ratings for any single game might be hurt. The volume allows for more total viewers, he said.

“The great priority is to keep exposing the conference,” he said.

For instance, Butler’s Dec. 22 game against Southern Utah on FS2 had 46,000 viewers – but the game was televised. That’s what coaches can tell prospects during the recruiting process.

Besides the CBS date, Butler is on Fox for games Feb. 13 against Xavier and Feb. 20 at Villanova. A possible Fox date is March 5 against Marquette.

“Every game is nationally televised. You can’t play in another conference and make that claim,” Mulvihill said.

And these are for the Conference Realignment thread:

Gentile (Big East associate commisioner) said the Big East is “sort of settled in” to a 10-team conference and has no expansion plans.

“There’s really been no negatives,” said Larry Jones, a Fox executive vice president.

[GreatDaneAttorney]

The thing I actually dislike most about the 10-team format of the Big East is that Big East basketball isn't on every night of the week. I'd rather have the Big East on versus other leagues and certainly versus reality TV, etc. If the league had 12, 14, or 16 members, almost certainly we'd see games on more nights of the week.

Further, if we had more games throughout the week rather than clustered on Tues/Wed/Sat/Sun, we might see an uptick in regular viewership. Viewers would know that they could tune into FS1 almost any night and catch a game or two.

[stever20]

The thing I actually dislike most about the 10-team format of the Big East is that Big East basketball isn't on every night of the week. I'd rather have the Big East on versus other leagues and certainly versus reality TV, etc. If the league had 12, 14, or 16 members, almost certainly we'd see games on more nights of the week.

Further, if we had more games throughout the week rather than clustered on Tues/Wed/Sat/Sun, we might see an uptick in regular viewership. Viewers would know that they could tune into FS1 almost any night and catch a game or two.

It's an interesting point.

I was looking at the Big 12, also with 10 teams. They normally have 1 or 2 on Monday, 1 or 2 on Tuesday, and 1 or 2 on Wednesday. Then 5 on Saturday....

The big difference is the Big East isn't doing many Monday games with the short turnover from Saturday to Monday. Only 1 Monday game the entire conference season.

[HoosierPal]

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/butler/2016/01/29/big-east-tv-viewership-limited-but-promising/79530200/

A lot of quotes from Fox Sports and Big East officials. Here is the heart of it.

“Maybe not a huge amount in actual numbers, but in percentage terms, that’s pretty good,” said Michael Mulvihill, a senior vice president for programming and research.

Fox is up against the behemoth that is ESPN. Of 669 games last season on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNews, average viewership was 448,000.

Mulvihill conceded FS1 is televising so many games that ratings for any single game might be hurt. The volume allows for more total viewers, he said.

“The great priority is to keep exposing the conference,” he said.

For instance, Butler’s Dec. 22 game against Southern Utah on FS2 had 46,000 viewers – but the game was televised. That’s what coaches can tell prospects during the recruiting process.

Besides the CBS date, Butler is on Fox for games Feb. 13 against Xavier and Feb. 20 at Villanova. A possible Fox date is March 5 against Marquette.

“Every game is nationally televised. You can’t play in another conference and make that claim,” Mulvihill said.

And these are for the Conference Realignment thread:

Gentile (Big East associate commisioner) said the Big East is “sort of settled in” to a 10-team conference and has no expansion plans.

“There’s really been no negatives,” said Larry Jones, a Fox executive vice president.

You left out the most interesting statement in the article. "Butler has been involved in the season’s three top-rated games on FS1." Hmm.

[DudeAnon]

http://www.indystar.com/story/sports/college/butler/2016/01/29/big-east-tv-viewership-limited-but-promising/79530200/

A lot of quotes from Fox Sports and Big East officials. Here is the heart of it.

“Maybe not a huge amount in actual numbers, but in percentage terms, that’s pretty good,” said Michael Mulvihill, a senior vice president for programming and research.

Fox is up against the behemoth that is ESPN. Of 669 games last season on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPNews, average viewership was 448,000.

Mulvihill conceded FS1 is televising so many games that ratings for any single game might be hurt. The volume allows for more total viewers, he said.

“The great priority is to keep exposing the conference,” he said.

For instance, Butler’s Dec. 22 game against Southern Utah on FS2 had 46,000 viewers – but the game was televised. That’s what coaches can tell prospects during the recruiting process.

Besides the CBS date, Butler is on Fox for games Feb. 13 against Xavier and Feb. 20 at Villanova. A possible Fox date is March 5 against Marquette.

“Every game is nationally televised. You can’t play in another conference and make that claim,” Mulvihill said.

And these are for the Conference Realignment thread:

Gentile (Big East associate commisioner) said the Big East is “sort of settled in” to a 10-team conference and has no expansion plans.

“There’s really been no negatives,” said Larry Jones, a Fox executive vice president.

You left out the most interesting statement in the article. "Butler has been involved in the season’s three top-rated games on FS1." Hmm.

The anti-Butler conspiracy is real

[MUPanther]

The thing I actually dislike most about the 10-team format of the Big East is that Big East basketball isn't on every night of the week. I'd rather have the Big East on versus other leagues and certainly versus reality TV, etc. If the league had 12, 14, or 16 members, almost certainly we'd see games on more nights of the week.

Further, if we had more games throughout the week rather than clustered on Tues/Wed/Sat/Sun, we might see an uptick in regular viewership. Viewers would know that they could tune into FS1 almost any night and catch a game or two.

It's an interesting point.

I was looking at the Big 12, also with 10 teams. They normally have 1 or 2 on Monday, 1 or 2 on Tuesday, and 1 or 2 on Wednesday. Then 5 on Saturday....

The big difference is the Big East isn't doing many Monday games with the short turnover from Saturday to Monday. Only 1 Monday game the entire conference season.

They had that in year 1 of the Big East/FS1 deal. Coaches didn't want it, the Saturday/Monday schedule.

[NovaBall]

I would like to see a Monday game. And I don't like when they overlap games. We have two great ones on tomorrow in Seton Hall/Marquette and Nova/Creighton. Same as last week when Seton Hall/Creighton overlapped with Georgetown/Providence. Why overlap?

Big East is unique because it appears it has a consistent fan base, but it is limited to the fans of the conference and isn't attracting as many casual viewers as an event on ESPN would. But the fans seem pretty consistent in that they watch games from all the teams. So why would you overlap the games when you only have 5 of them all weekend or another 5 during the weekdays?

Anyway, Nova/SJU with a 0.6 rating was pretty surprising. I thought for sure that snooze fest was going to be in the 0.3/0.4 range. This after Nova/GTown recently approached a million viewers, the new high for the conference.

[stever20]

The thing I actually dislike most about the 10-team format of the Big East is that Big East basketball isn't on every night of the week. I'd rather have the Big East on versus other leagues and certainly versus reality TV, etc. If the league had 12, 14, or 16 members, almost certainly we'd see games on more nights of the week.

Further, if we had more games throughout the week rather than clustered on Tues/Wed/Sat/Sun, we might see an uptick in regular viewership. Viewers would know that they could tune into FS1 almost any night and catch a game or two.

It's an interesting point.

I was looking at the Big 12, also with 10 teams. They normally have 1 or 2 on Monday, 1 or 2 on Tuesday, and 1 or 2 on Wednesday. Then 5 on Saturday....

The big difference is the Big East isn't doing many Monday games with the short turnover from Saturday to Monday. Only 1 Monday game the entire conference season.

They had that in year 1 of the Big East/FS1 deal. Coaches didn't want it, the Saturday/Monday schedule.

Yeah. You wonder if it's hurting the exposure part though- having everything clustered Tue/Wed and Sat.

And at some points, coaches views shouldn't matter. If it's better for the conference to have Monday games, then the conference needs to have Monday games.

[MUPanther]

I would like to see a Monday game. And I don't like when they overlap games. We have two great ones on tomorrow in Seton Hall/Marquette and Nova/Creighton. Same as last week when Seton Hall/Creighton overlapped with Georgetown/Providence. Why overlap?

Big East is unique because it appears it has a consistent fan base, but it is limited to the fans of the conference and isn't attracting as many casual viewers as an event on ESPN would. But the fans seem pretty consistent in that they watch games from all the teams. So why would you overlap the games when you only have 5 of them all weekend or another 5 during the weekdays?

The overlap of games in "many" cases is due that many Big East schools don't pay in their own arena.

I would be fine with a Monday game, but if the coaches didn't want it to make their team better, I guess I would be for it.

[BillM]

It also should be considered not wanting to go up against Big Monday on ESPN. BM is has been around for a long time (started with the Big East back in the 80's) and is pretty entrenched in terms of people watching it whether they have a rooting interest or not. It maybe FOX looks at that and just doesn't want to bother competing until their ratings rise some more.