Since I'm killing time at the office...

[WoolyBully]

Here's some TV stuff....

City's bowl has lowest rating of ESPN bowls

Friday, December 29, 2006

JON SOLOMON

News staff writer

The inaugural Papajohns.com Bowl received a household television rating

between 1.4 and 1.66, according to Nielsen and ESPN.

Nielsen reported the East Carolina-South Florida game drew a 1.4

household rating on Dec. 23, the equivalent of 1.53 million homes.

The viewerrating by Nielsen was 0.7, or 2.11 million people.

ESPN listed the household rating at 1.66 and did not provide a viewer rating.

 

The household rating was the lowest of the five bowls owned by ESPN, but the network

expressed pleasure with the debut.

"We probably did a little better than what we thought," said Pete Derzis, senior

vice president and general manager of ESPN Regional Television. "We're really pleased

for a first-year bowl to get that number. Our sponsor will be more than pleased."

ESPN reported its other owned games, the New Mexico (1.80), Las Vegas (1.97),

Armed Forces (2.02) and Hawaii (2.53) bowls, recorded better household ratings.

The New Mexico and Armed Forces bowls were played Dec. 23 after Birmingham's

noon kickoff.

"It tells me more people were in front of their TV as the day went on," Derzis

said. "It speaks to the interest of college football."

The Papajohns.com Bowl also was lower-rated than the Motor City Bowl (1.7) and

will likely be one of the lowest this bowl season.

Even so, the Papajohns.com Bowl was higher than ESPN's average major-league

baseball rating in 2006 (1.2).

The rating also represents a better start than some bowls that failed in recent

years. For example, the Silicon Valley Classic folded after poor attendance and

ratings below 1.0 in 2002 and 2003.

A year ago, two bowls had household ratings lower than 1.66 - the Poinsettia Bowl

(Colorado State-Navy) at 0.89 and the Meineke Car Care Bowl (South Florida-N.C. State)

at 1.52.

The Hawaii Bowl drew a 2.20 last year on the Saturday before Christmas, the date

of this year's Papajohns.com Bowl. Unlike Birmingham's game, Hawaii's was played

in the evening when more people tend to watch television.

The date of next year's Papajohns.com Bowl will be finalized in future months as

ESPN reviews available time windows.

"We felt like having it on a [highlight]Saturday afternoon was a real plus[/highlight] for us," Derzis

said. "If we put it in prime time, the game might have rated better. We'll have

a healthy discussion on that before we decide anything."

http://www.al.com/sports/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/sports/1167387336276300.xml&coll=2

TV wise, that makes sense. The Saturday was good...the actual calendar date,  perhaps not

so much. Had the Saturday fallen on the 24th or 25th...hmmmm.  Again, this is my good

friends at E$PN and the wonderful world of television marketing.  8-)

[USF03]

2.11 million people isn't bad... I would think on that calendar day.  Big shopping day...

[72bull]

Not to knock ECU, but a higher level opponent would have provided a more interesting matchup.  Same for Rutgers.