Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

There wasn't really another thread where I thought this fit.  Some interesting breakdowns of the data here.  Top viewership by team, by conference, and some of the underlying factors determining that.  All  based on the 100 most watched games of the season.

https://footballscoop.com/news/the-100-most-watched-games-of-the-2024-college-football-season

I still think the ABC/ESPN numbers need a deeper dive.  There is no "over the air" tv anymore.  It's either cable or streaming, and either way you get both channels.

I would be curious as to what is airing on ESPN when ABC is showing football, and vice versa.  I suspect when ABC is showing college football, ESPN is showing some shitty sporting event.  But when ESPN has football, ABC is showing the Bachelor, or equivalent.  So assume you are a sports fan, you are watching that college football game.  Unless you have a vested issue in whatever college basketball or volleyball game ESPN is showing instead, you aren't watching that.  All you are doing is attracting sports fans, and telling them to pick between two very different options.  If you don't want to watch sports, you are watching neither.  But all sports fans are watching ESPN.  If you put that game on ESPN, then ABC suddenly has something to sell people who don't want to watch sports.  And ABC generally is showing some popular reality show.  They aren't showing DDD re-runs (which I do watch).  So those show DO get eyeballs.

It took me 2 seconds to realize the issue with their study, and I promise the Disney execs have done the same, which is why they split them like they have.

Nebraska played in six of the 100 most-watched college football games of the 2024 season.

Those have to be old people watching local news and Wheel of Fortune.  I can't imagine anyone who cares about college football just getting over the air broadcast TV

OTA HD broadcast is better than most cable or streamed HD signals, because it's uncompressed.  I know a couple of hardcore sports fans that have reinstalled their OTA antennae and insist on watching the OTA broadcast rather than cable/streaming when it's available.

That's not me of course, I'm far too lazy to bother with switching back and forth btw OTA and cable/streaming.

Those have to be old people watching local news and Wheel of Fortune.  I can't imagine anyone who cares about college football just getting over the air broadcast TV

ask Nubbz

OTA HD broadcast is better than most cable or streamed HD signals, because it's uncompressed.  I know a couple of hardcore sports fans that have reinstalled their OTA antennae and insist on watching the OTA broadcast rather than cable/streaming when it's available.

That's not me of course, I'm far too lazy to bother with switching back and forth btw OTA and cable/streaming.

and it doesn't suffer from as much delay

I would be curious as to what is airing on ESPN when ABC is showing football, and vice versa.  I suspect when ABC is showing college football, ESPN is showing some shitty sporting event.  But when ESPN has football, ABC is showing the Bachelor, or equivalent.  So assume you are a sports fan, you are watching that college football game.  Unless you have a vested issue in whatever college basketball or volleyball game ESPN is showing instead, you aren't watching that.  All you are doing is attracting sports fans, and telling them to pick between two very different options.  If you don't want to watch sports, you are watching neither.  But all sports fans are watching ESPN.  If you put that game on ESPN, then ABC suddenly has something to sell people who don't want to watch sports.  And ABC generally is showing some popular reality show.  They aren't showing DDD re-runs (which I do watch).  So those show DO get eyeballs.

It took me 2 seconds to realize the issue with their study, and I promise the Disney execs have done the same, which is why they split them like they have.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here?  The same could be said of alternate programming on CBS when Fox is showing BiG football, and/or NBC, or whatever.