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If it feels like there has been more attention on college football recently, it’s because there has been.
A FOX Sports executive detailed the ratings jump across college football on social media Wednesday, explaining that the sport is seeing significantly more viewers this season.
Michael Mulvihill, who does insights and analytics for several FOX networks, said that total viewings of college football across all networks is up 12% this year and up 28% over the last five years.
Total viewing of College Football across all networks is up +12% this year and up +28% over the last five years.
— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) October 10, 2023
In a thread, he explained some of the reasons for the recent ratings jump.
“It’s not just the addition of out-of-home measurement to the ratings,” Mulvihill said. “Most of the growth is since the introduction of OOH and no other major sport has that kind of five year trend.”
With more changes coming to college football, Mulvihill thinks the ratings are going to continue going up. He believes that the addition of the Big Ten broadcast triple-header, which would have 3 Big Ten games on FOX, CBS and NBC throughout the day in succession, will lead to more growth.
“And I think it’s going up again next year when the Big Ten broadcast tripleheader is fully in place and Disney has total flexibility to place the SEC inventory where they want it,” he said.
Mulvihill believes college football is seeing more growth than nearly anything on TV. While the growth might not be as staggering as smaller sports that have picked up traction of the last few years, he believes it is growing more than any other established brand.
“There are certainly emerging sports that have gaudier growth % off a lower base of viewership, but among well-established major properties I don’t know what in all of TV is trending any better than CFB,” Mulvihill said.
