Fox sports ratings struggling big time

[fellahmuskie]

Not sure what else they can do to get people watching, but these numbers are staggering:

Sports TV Ratings
‏@SportsTVRatings

Weds college hoops on ESPN:

Louisville/North Carolina: 2.131M
Duke/Syracuse: 1.805M

Butler/Villanova on FS1: 284K

It's going to be really interesting to see how Big 10 basketball does on FS1. If that struggles to compete with ESPN/2 numbers, then I'll be concerned. For now, I think Big East numbers have been stable and gradually rising. Not sure about this season, but the first few months were decent.

[XUMIOH12]

Not sure what else they can do to get people watching, but these numbers are staggering:

Sports TV Ratings
‏@SportsTVRatings

Weds college hoops on ESPN:

Louisville/North Carolina: 2.131M
Duke/Syracuse: 1.805M

Butler/Villanova on FS1: 284K

that is a pretty big difference, but look at the teams playing on ESPN and the size of their followings. Generally, especially for casual fans, they check ESPN for sports to see what is on. I have even noticed this with several friends who are avid sports fans, yet rarely check FS1 just to see what is on.

[D-West & PO-Z]

I feel like FS1 also doesnt have enough everyday good games and sports on yet either that would make someone just flip it on to see what is on. They have a lot of niche stuff like Nascar and UFC (I know both have a lot of fans) but also just random UFC shows and dirt biking and other smaller attraction things. You can turn on ESPN at any given time any given night and there is a main stream game on of some sort. FS1 doesnt have that yet.

[drudy23]

If we're honest, let's admit the rest of the country doesn't look at Big East hoops the same way as they do the big boys (with the exception of maybe Villanova), at least not in terms of entertainment value.

Does the random college basketball fan know enough about Xavier to watch a random Wednesday night game against Creighton? Not really. We love our Muskies but the rest of the country isn't interested.

[Juice]

If we're honest, let's admit the rest of the country doesn't look at Big East hoops the same way as they do the big boys (with the exception of maybe Villanova), at least not in terms of entertainment value.

Does the random college basketball fan know enough about Xavier to watch a random Wednesday night game against Creighton? Not really. We love our Muskies but the rest of the country isn't interested.

Yeah for as good as our conference is, it is comprised of a lot of small, private schools that do not have huge fan bases and don't have huge followings. Continued success obviously helps with that.

[xu82]

Even if you hate him, guys like Colin Cowherd have a following. They are getting more and more exposure, and ESPN generally sucks. So........

[D-West & PO-Z]

Do you guys think its more the schools or the networks? If you switched those games with the number of viewers listed and made the BE game on ESPN and the ESPN games on FS1 do you think the numbers flip along with it?

I think its both but more the networks than schools. I think those teams would get more viewers than the BE game did on FS1 but I'd bet the viewers would have been significantly higher still on ESPN if the games were switched.