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SATURDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL Becomes Most-Viewed College Football Series on TV

SATURDAY-NIGHT-FOOTBALL-Becomes-Most-Viewed-College-Football-Series-on-TV-20121212

ESPN's Saturday Night Football Presented by Windows 8 on ABC, the first weekly prime-time college football game on broadcast television, was the highest-rated and most-viewed college football series among all networks carrying college football this season. The weekly package averaged 6,518,000 viewers and a 4.0 rating, and was the most-watched program of the night in viewers on six of its 12 broadcasts this season.

The Saturday Night Football broadcast of Notre Dame defeating USC 22-13 on November 24 was ABC's second most-viewed and second highest-rated regular-season game since 1991, averaging 16,059,000 viewers and a 9.4 rating. The victory, securing Notre Dame's spot in the Discover BCS National Championship (against Alabama on January 7 at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN), was second only to ABC's broadcast of No. 2 Michigan at No. 1 Ohio State (21,037,000 viewers; 14,479,000 households; and a 13.0 rating) on November 18, 2006.

ABC televised four games involving Notre Dame this season, averaging 8,839,000 viewers, 6,100,000 households, and a 5.3 rating. Led by Notre Dame against USC, ABC has televised the three most-viewed and highest-rated regular-season games involving Notre Dame since Florida State on NBC in 1993. The other two games were also against USC: November 25, 2006 (14,647,000 viewers; 10,048,000 households; and a 9.0 rating) and November 30, 1996 (10,847,000 viewers; 7,246,000 households; and a 7.5 rating).

ESPN concluded its extensive regular-season coverage of the 2012 college football season by televising the second most-viewed and second highest-rated Heisman Trophy Presentation telecast ever, averaging 4,902,000 viewers and a 3.5 rating (behind 2009's average of 5,990,000 viewers and a 4.1 rating).

For the 2012 college football season, ESPN offered exclusive coverage of more games than every network combined across television and digital platforms, reaching hundreds of millions of fans.

For the season, ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN3 covered 306 regular-season Football Bowl Subdivision games exclusively - 195 more than every other national network combined (CBS, FOX, NBC, FX, NBC Sports Network and CBS Sports Network) - involving teams from all 11 conferences, plus independents Notre Dame, BYU, Navy and Army.

Overall, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 combined to reach more than 187,000,000 viewers for game telecasts. Combining ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 with ESPNU's extensive lineup and the networks averaged 2,018,000 viewers for 216 regular-season games. ESPN offered games across every day of the week with select Tuesday and Wednesday matchups and a regular schedule of Thursday, Friday and Saturday telecasts.

ESPN college football content also posted significant usage across digital platforms (ESPN.com, ESPN mobile Web, ScoreCenter, ESPN College Football app, ESPN3, WatchESPN), logging an average minute audience of 163,000 on college football Saturdays. The new ESPN College Football app for Android and iOS devices received 3.4 million downloads this season. On Saturdays, the app averaged 972,000 unique visitors, 1,800,000 visits, 10,600,000 page views and 9:30 per visitor.

For the 12th consecutive year, Birmingham was the highest-rated metered market for ESPN's regular-season telecasts, averaging an 8.9 rating, 89 percent higher than second place Greenville's 4.7 rating. Eight of last season's top 10 metered markets finished the 2012 season among the top 10 again. Tulsa (seventh in 2011) and Las Vegas (ninth) both fell out of the top 10, tying at 12th with a 2.5 rating, while Nashville, Memphis and Austin jumped into the top 10.

- All three of Tennessee's metered markets finished in the top 10 with Knoxville leading the way at third. The home market of the Tennessee Volunteers jumped from 10th last year, averaging a 4.6 rating. Nashville at ninth (3.3 rating) and Memphis at 10th (3.1 rating) were tied at 16 last year with a 2.5 rating.

- Every market in the top 10 but Columbus and Oklahoma City finished with a higher average rating than in 2011, led by Knoxville with a 53 percent increase (4.6 vs. 3.0). Birmingham posted a 51 percent increase over last year's leading 5.9 rating.

Top 25 Markets for 2012 Top 25 Markets for 2011
No. 1 Birmingham: 8.9 rating No. 1 Birmingham: 5.9 rating
No. 2 Greenville: 4.7 rating No. 2 Oklahoma City: 4.3 rating
No. 3 Knoxville: 4.6 rating Columbus: 4.3 rating
No. 4 New Orleans: 3.7 rating No. 4 Greenville: 4.1 rating
No. 5 Jacksonville: 3.6 rating No. 5 New Orleans: 3.4 rating
Columbus: 3.6 rating Atlanta: 3.4 rating
No. 7 Atlanta: 3.5 rating No. 7 Jacksonville: 3.3 rating
No. 8 Oklahoma City: 3.4 rating Tulsa: 3.3 rating
No. 9 Nashville: 3.3 rating No. 9 Las Vegas: 3.2 rating
No. 10 Memphis: 3.1 rating No. 10 Knoxville: 3.0 rating
Austin: 3.1 rating No. 11 Dayton: 2.8 rating
No. 12 Tulsa: 2.5 rating No. 12 Greensboro: 2.7 rating
Charlotte: 2.5 rating Austin: 2.7 rating
Las Vegas: 2.5 rating Charlotte: 2.7 rating
No. 15 Portland: 2.3 rating Fort Myers: 2.7 rating
Richmond: 2.3 rating No. 16 Pittsburgh: 2.5 rating
No. 17 Orlando: 2.2 rating Nashville: 2.5 rating
Dayton: 2.2 rating Norfolk: 2.5 rating
Norfolk: 2.2 rating Memphis: 2.5 rating
No. 20 Louisville: 2.1 rating No. 20 Cleveland: 2.4 rating
Tampa-St. Petersburg: 2.1 rating No. 21 Orlando: 2.3 rating
No. 22 West Palm Beach: 2.0 rating No. 22 Raleigh-Durham: 2.2 rating
Greensboro: 2.0 rating West Palm Beach: 2.2 rating
Cleveland: 2.0 rating Detroit: 2.2 rating
Ft. Myers: 2.0 rating No. 25 Cincinnati: 2.0 rating
Richmond: 2.0 rating
Portland 2.0 rating
Kansas City: 2.0 rating
Tampa-St. Petersburg: 2.0 rating