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FS1, which is up for the third straight season. The cable net averaged 109,000 viewers in ’15-16 compared to 100,000 viewers last season. However, Fox’ broadcast net averaged 639,000 viewers, down from 685,000 last year, primarily due to the net broadcasting Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski’s 1,000th win last season, which remains the net’s best hoops audience on record. Looking at combined Fox and FS1 numbers, Fox Sports averaged 163,000 viewers for its college basketball programming, up from 156,000 last season and up from 103,000 in ’13-14.

wait a second. ESPN drew 1.232 million per game while Fox network drew 639k per game? You don't say.

Hope we can get more games on CBS next season. Now that would be big.

stever20 wrote:wait a second. ESPN drew 1.232 million per game while Fox network drew 639k per game? You don't say.

Massive state schools vs. smallish private schools. Unfortunately that will never change.

Put Indiana or Michigan on FS1 and the ratings sky rocket.

It's really not even that. It's just long-ingrained viewership habits that take a long time to change. There are multiple generations conditioned to put on ESPN to watch sports. Heck, it wasn't until this year that my cable operator put FS2 in HD and placed both FOX sports networks into the "sports area" of the programming guide. This is a long process, and FOX knows this.

I was comparing ESPN at 1.232 million per game to Big Fox at 639k per game. Folks want to act like games on Big Fox are better than ESPN for exposure and that's a joke. Average viewership is what 40%+ for ESPN?

So you guys really think it has nothing to do with the fact that we are comparing, say, a Michigan vs. Indiana game and a Providence vs. Seton Hall game?

PC has 4,000 undergraduates. I really don't see how that doesn't play into this.

I don't care if they put Kentucky or Duke on truTV, they get ratings.

But yes, I also agree that people default to ESPN/ESPN2 for sports. Is this news?

stever20 wrote:I was comparing ESPN at 1.232 million per game to Big Fox at 639k per game. Folks want to act like games on Big Fox are better than ESPN for exposure and that's a joke. Average viewership is what 40%+ for ESPN?

But you are not comparing similar attractions.

What does Duke vs. UNC get on big Fox, in your opinion? What do most Big Ten games get on big Fox?

There is not a huge following of people for many of the BE schools other than those in the local city area and/or alumni. This is certainly the case for PC. People who watch PC are likely from RI or went to PC. That's pretty much it.

stever20 wrote:wait a second. ESPN drew 1.232 million per game while Fox network drew 639k per game? You don't say.

Hope we can get more games on CBS next season. Now that would be big.

Stever, how about worrying about your pathetic fanbase showing up for even 1 season.

Grass Growing on ESPN draws 700K viewers. Nothing to do with the teams that are on it.

What's funny is when stever acts like if we were still on ESPN we would have all our games on the main network. So not true. We would have some on the main network, mainly with the same three teams over and over again, a bunch on ESPN2, and the rest on ESPNU and ESPN News and internet streaming.

The Fox deal is so much better than the old ESPN deal. Only a complete moron would disagree.

HugeFan wrote:Grass Growing on ESPN draws 700K viewers. Nothing to do with the teams that are on it.

What's funny is when stever acts like if we were still on ESPN we would have all our games on the main network. So not true. We would have some on the main network, mainly with the same three teams over and over again, a bunch on ESPN2, and the rest on ESPNU and ESPN News and internet streaming.

The Fox deal is so much better than the old ESPN deal. Only a complete moron would disagree.

I agree that ESPN naturally gets better sports ratings. I also agree that the Fox deal is much, much better for the BE.

However, I do believe that Big Ten and ACC games would get better ratings on FS1 than BE games. Just by nature of national profile, enrollment/alumni numbers and the fact that flagship, state universities have large followings.