Fox Sports 1 Update

[stever20]

ESPN though now can see what is going on with Fox. ESPN if they can keep Big Ten and NBA away from Fox pretty much eliminates Fox for a long time, if ever. IF ESPN has a chance to KO Fox, why wouldn't they take the chance to do that?

Also, I would say ESPN needs the NBA quite a lot. They don't have much in spring but that quite frankly. Big Ten maybe less so, but I just don't see Big Ten leaving ESPN at all...

I don't think the Big Ten will leave ESPN either but I also see that they will likely split the games with FOX the way they do it with the Pac-12. There are just too many synergies with Fox and the BIG, as long as the money is the same (and we know Fox has deep pockets), they will get a share of the BIG.

If FS1 was getting better ratings than maybe. I think Big Ten will make it where most of the games have to be on Fox Network and not FS1. That's the big issue.

I think for FS1 to get games, Fox would have to way overbid ESPN. I mean Way overbid. Conferences aren't ones to gamble. FS1 right now as much as you might love it is a HUGE gamble.

[HoosierPal]

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2014/03/college-basketball-tv-ratings-numbers-for-every-game-of-the-2013-14-season/

FS1 and Fox Sports 2 combined to air the ten least-viewed games of the season, each of which earned fewer than 10,000 viewers. In a three-way tie for dead last were Monmouth/Seton Hall on November 18, Houston Baptist/DePaul on December 18, and VCU/Boston College on December 28, which each earned just 1,000 viewers on FS2. Nine of the ten least-viewed games involved a Big East team.

Draw your own conclusion.

[marquette]

FS2 has barely any availability. Nobody but hardcore fans of those schools would watch those games, even if they were on ESPNU or ESPN News. FS1 is still working on brand recognition. It will grow with time.

[stever20]

wow didn't realize just how bad the rest of the BE tourney was compared to even the AAC....

The avg AAC tourney game got 468k viewers. The avg BE tourney game got 255k viewers...
if you take out the title game(where AAC got over 2x the BE's viewers- 1688k vs 702k)- AAC still drew 315.88 k per game, while BE got 199.13 k per game.

And that's even with games on ESPNU for 1st 2 rounds. 1 of their SF outdrew our final. Something is wrong with that picture.

[murphy]

Big East Champ. Down 80%, But Sets FS1 Record
◾The Providence/Creighton Big East Championship Game earned 702,000 viewers on Fox Sports 1 Saturday night, down 80% from Louisville/Syracuse on ESPN last year (3.4M), and down 68% from Louisville/Cincinnati in 2012 (2.2M).

[Jet915]

wow didn't realize just how bad the rest of the BE tourney was compared to even the AAC....

The avg AAC tourney game got 468k viewers. The avg BE tourney game got 255k viewers...
if you take out the title game(where AAC got over 2x the BE's viewers- 1688k vs 702k)- AAC still drew 315.88 k per game, while BE got 199.13 k per game.

And that's even with games on ESPNU for 1st 2 rounds. 1 of their SF outdrew our final. Something is wrong with that picture.

You do realize that the Pac-12 Championship game drew worst then the Big East Championship game as well right? The Pac-12 championship game had #1 Arizona against UCLA. Definitely better name recognition than Creighton vs. Providence. It's not a Big East thing, it's an FS1 thing that will take time to develop regular viewers....

[R to the OB]

Jet915 is right.
I do think the numbers would have been a bit higher had it been Creighton-Nova Part III, however.

[ta111]

"Nine of the ten least watched games involved a team from the BE". Draw your own conclusions.

[LeMoyne00]

You do realize that the Pac-12 Championship game drew worst then the Big East Championship game as well right? The Pac-12 championship game had #1 Arizona against UCLA. Definitely better name recognition than Creighton vs. Providence. It's not a Big East thing, it's an FS1 thing that will take time to develop regular viewers....

The PAC Championship wasn't exclusively on FS1 though, and to be honest, the conference didn't even promote FS1 either. The conference website was promoting the tournament on the PAC 12 Network. Their games were available on the PAC 12 Network, their digital network, and FS1. Unlike the Big East who was exclusive.

See the promotion for example on the top of their tourney bracket: http://pac-12.com/2014-pac-12-mens-basketball-tournament.

[billyjack]

This topic is like catnip for BE pessimists and resident trolls.
But FS1 ratings are already similar to ESPN-U.
And as we've discussed umpty-squat times, FS1 will continue to steadily improve.
In 3 years or so FS1 will be equal to ESPN-2.