2017 Houston area TV Ratings - Week 2

pray10 (Patrick) 2017-09-14 08:14:39 UTC #1

David Barron released his first local TV ratings of the year which includes the first two weeks. I'll track them like I did last year's.

So, the rating actually isn't that bad (Barron only gives out the top performing games in Houston, not the entire list). Last year, Houston-Texas State was the highest rated game on ESPNU in the Houston area with a 2.5/89K viewers. This game would have tied for 4th highest last year with Texas A&M-New Mexico State, but behind Texas A&M-UTSA and Houston-UCF. None of those games were late games though.
Going by best performing late games last year, only 1 game rated better than last week's game: Oregon-Cal which started at 9:30 on ESPN. It rated a 1.7/44K viewers.

Due to Hurricane Irma, national data for ESPNU games was delayed so I didn't have that info yet.

CoogFansAdmin (itcoog) 2017-09-14 14:00:19 UTC #2

I think its very respectable. Clearly we are making headway.

CougarRed 2017-09-14 14:08:23 UTC #3

I wonder how big a difference time window makes.

A&M Nicholls was the lead into our game on the same channel. They got 79K viewers in a better window. We got 56K in the late window.

Now, you might say Nicholls is FCS while we played a Pac 12 team. But the Nichols game was very close, and much better than anyone anticipated. If it was a blowout like it should have been, I don't know if they get 79K.

I wonder if the games were reversed. If Houston-Arizona was on at 6, and A&M-Nicholls started at 9:30. I have a feeling the Houston game would have had more local viewers than the A&M game. Maybe not 79 vs 56 better, but better.

tristatecoog (shharper01) 2017-09-14 15:37:29 UTC #4

The UT figure on FS1 is pretty respectable.

For us, 930 pm is a tough slot. We buried the Boise vs Wazzu game on ESPN at the same time.

H-Town (Cary) 2017-09-14 15:59:46 UTC #5

On ESPNU at 930p CT a week after a natural disaster... I'm cool with that.

CougarRed 2017-09-14 18:01:10 UTC #6

242K nationally.

Pretty good for the time slot & channel. Over 2015, 2016 and now 2017, only one game on ESPNU in the late Saturday time slot did better. Seven did worse. Six did substantially worse (195K or less).

http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/college-football-tv-ratings/