So I have been crunching numbers this weekend because I don’t feel like doing much else.
I have been pouring over the ratings information cited by the article from The Athletic about the 4 million club, or whatever.
I went through all the information available from 2012-2020.
I counted every game in the totals that had viewer number available. I did include bowls, playoffs and preseason kickoff games, as well as games against FCS opponents. I didn’t want to cherry-pick info because I wanted to know real numbers and totals.
I am actually working on a more extensive breakdown covering all the B12 as well as the 13 members of the “4 million club,” but for now, I wanted to share some early numbers. It is time consuming, so it will take a while to complete the whole project.
I broke things down into 2 main categories, major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN) and secondary networks (ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN News, FS1, FS2, NBC Sports, etc…)
My focus here is on WVU. For ease of typing, I will refer to members of the 4 million club as 4MC and all others as, well… everyone else.
Here goes… (keep in mind this is from data available as not every game played had data available)
- 91 total games offered data that went into these stats.
- From 2012-2020 WVU played games against members of the 4MC 19 times, the majority being against Texas and Oklahoma.
- The remaining games (72) were against non-4MC schools.
- WVU played 44 games on major networks and 47 games on secondary networks.
- When WVU plays on a major network, it’s average numbers of viewers from 2012-2020 is 3.27 million per game.
- The season high for major networks was 3.826 million in 2014. This was largely due to playing 4 games against the 4MC (Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Alabama). The high for 2014 was vs. Alabama at 6.4 million viewers on ABC at 330 pm.
- The season low for major networks was 1.765 million in 2019. The high that season was vs. Texas at 3.16 million on ABC at 330 pm.
- The overall highest rated game was the aforementioned Alabama game.
- When WVU plays on secondary networks, the numbers are far less forgiving, however I have found that to be the case with every school to varying degrees so far. The secondary network average viewership during the aforementioned time period is 753 thousand viewers per game.
- The highest rated secondary network game is vs. Baylor on FS1 at 1.64 million viewers in 2014. Compare that with a low point vs. East Carolina with 293 thousand viewers on FS2 at noon in 2017.
- It absolutely is a difference maker which network airs a game, as even Texas and Oklahoma had their numbers take significant hits when they play on secondary networks.
- It is also no shock to learn that the members of the 4MC by a large margin played in the most prime time games on major networks, but all had more games where they did not meet or exceed the 4 million mark than the amount in which they did hit the mark.
So the quick take away is that when WVU plays on a major network, it’s numbers match up pretty well, and exceed the numbers of most.
We just need to stay off FS1, FS2 and ESPNU as much as possible.
More to come in the future.
I have been pouring over the ratings information cited by the article from The Athletic about the 4 million club, or whatever.
I went through all the information available from 2012-2020.
I counted every game in the totals that had viewer number available. I did include bowls, playoffs and preseason kickoff games, as well as games against FCS opponents. I didn’t want to cherry-pick info because I wanted to know real numbers and totals.
I am actually working on a more extensive breakdown covering all the B12 as well as the 13 members of the “4 million club,” but for now, I wanted to share some early numbers. It is time consuming, so it will take a while to complete the whole project.
I broke things down into 2 main categories, major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN) and secondary networks (ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN News, FS1, FS2, NBC Sports, etc…)
My focus here is on WVU. For ease of typing, I will refer to members of the 4 million club as 4MC and all others as, well… everyone else.
Here goes… (keep in mind this is from data available as not every game played had data available)
- 91 total games offered data that went into these stats.
- From 2012-2020 WVU played games against members of the 4MC 19 times, the majority being against Texas and Oklahoma.
- The remaining games (72) were against non-4MC schools.
- WVU played 44 games on major networks and 47 games on secondary networks.
- When WVU plays on a major network, it’s average numbers of viewers from 2012-2020 is 3.27 million per game.
- The season high for major networks was 3.826 million in 2014. This was largely due to playing 4 games against the 4MC (Texas, Texas A&M, Oklahoma, and Alabama). The high for 2014 was vs. Alabama at 6.4 million viewers on ABC at 330 pm.
- The season low for major networks was 1.765 million in 2019. The high that season was vs. Texas at 3.16 million on ABC at 330 pm.
- The overall highest rated game was the aforementioned Alabama game.
- When WVU plays on secondary networks, the numbers are far less forgiving, however I have found that to be the case with every school to varying degrees so far. The secondary network average viewership during the aforementioned time period is 753 thousand viewers per game.
- The highest rated secondary network game is vs. Baylor on FS1 at 1.64 million viewers in 2014. Compare that with a low point vs. East Carolina with 293 thousand viewers on FS2 at noon in 2017.
- It absolutely is a difference maker which network airs a game, as even Texas and Oklahoma had their numbers take significant hits when they play on secondary networks.
- It is also no shock to learn that the members of the 4MC by a large margin played in the most prime time games on major networks, but all had more games where they did not meet or exceed the 4 million mark than the amount in which they did hit the mark.
So the quick take away is that when WVU plays on a major network, it’s numbers match up pretty well, and exceed the numbers of most.
We just need to stay off FS1, FS2 and ESPNU as much as possible.
More to come in the future.
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