CBS had the most interesting games during the college football season, and that helped it become the only broadcast network to up its numbers year to year among the core football viewing audience, men 18-49.

   The network increased by 10 percent while ABC and NBC, both higher-rated than CBS last season, declined, according to Nielsen data released this week.

   In a rather dull year for college football in general, where popular teams such as Miami, Florida, Notre Dame and Ohio State lost early, CBS inched up because it had the best games.

   “They’re a more refined, more developed football fan base who tune into high-quality games,” Bonham group vice president and COO Shawn Bradley says.
   “I think this generally reflects the strength of their programs and the key match-ups.”

   This year the Southeastern Conference, which CBS televises, had two of the top teams in the country in Georgia and LSU, as well as several other top-25 teams that were evenly matched. That made for exciting football.

   It helped CBS go from a 2.0 to a 2.2 rating among men 18-49, edging ahead of NBC for the season, though CBS’s male 18-34 viewership dropped 10 percent to a 1.8.

   Overall, CBS’s household ratings rose 18 percent, to a 3.3/8, its best college football average in more than four years.
  ABC, home to this year's duller Big 10, ACC and Big 12, was down 6 percent in men 18-49 and 10 percent in men 18-34, while declining 2 percent in households.

   NBC, which carries only Notre Dame, had the toughest year. Its average rating dipped 33 percent among 18-49s, to a 1.4. Last year, NBC was 5 percent ahead of CBS in that demo.
   The slip is not surprising, considering the Fighting Irish started the season 1-3 and won just three of their six games on NBC. But it’s far steeper than the dropoff in household average, which went from a 3.1 rating to a 2.4 this year.

   “That’s definitely bringing ratings down, no question about it,” Breslow says. “College football is really competition-driven, just like a golf tournament. If Tiger’s not in it, people won’t watch.

   “You need a draw to bring the lighter viewers.”

   ABC’s men 18-49 rating fell 6 percent among 18-49s to a 3.1 versus 3.3 last year. Among men 18-34 the decline was steeper, 10 percent to a 2.8. 

   Among households, though, ABC dropped only 2 percent, to a 4.4 rating. It led all networks in college football ratings, though airing several primetime match-ups certainly helped that.

   ABC and NBC could point at Nielsen for some of the falloff, as has been seen in primetime this year, but Bradley says he doesn’t think that is a big issue.