ESPN/ABC College Football Week 5

  • Saturday Night Football’s 6 Notre Dame at No. 12 Clemson: Most-Viewed Game
  • ESPN/ABC: Televised Top 6 Most-Viewed Games of the Season
  • WatchESPN: Tops Previous Two Weeks, All of 2014 Season

ESPN/ABC has been the No. 1 prime-time destination for college football fans throughout the 2015 season and week 5 continued the trend. ABC’s Saturday Night Football featuring then-No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 12 Clemson (8 p.m. ET) was the most-watched game on Saturday, averaging 7,647,000 viewers – the fourth most-watched game of the 2015 season across all networks and up 93% over the similar window in 2014 (Notre Dame at Syracuse).

ABC also televised the most-watched afternoon window when No. 1 Ohio State at Indiana and Texas Tech vs. No. 5 Baylor (3:30 p.m.) , regionalized,  earned 7,298,000 viewers, the second-most-watched game of the day behind the Irish-Tigers matchup and up 36% from the 2014 comparable window (Florida State at North Carolina State and Minnesota at Michigan). Additionally, on WatchESPN, the regionalized window added 101,000 average minute impressions to the TV audience, with 471,000 unique viewers and 23,200,000 live minutes viewed, up 59%, 45%, and 60%, respectively, compared to the same 2014 regional window.

Through week 5, ESPN/ABC has televised the top 6 most-watched games of the 2015 season:

Rank Viewership Date Time Game Network
1. 10,585,000 Mon, Sept. 7 8 p.m. No. 1 Ohio State at Virginia Tech ESPN
2. 7,967,000 Sat, Sept 5 8 p.m. No. 20 Wisconsin vs. No. 3 Alabama ABC
3. 7,898,000 Sat. Sept. 12 8 p.m. No. 7 Oregon at No. 5 Michigan State ABC
4. 7,647,000 Sat. Oct. 3 8 p.m. No. 6 Notre Dame at No. 12 Clemson ABC
5. 7,605,000 Sat, Sept. 19 9:15 p.m. No. 15 Ole Miss at No. 2 Alabama ESPN
6. 7,298,000 Sat, Oct. 3 3:30 p.m. Regional: (No. 1 Ohio State at Indiana/Texas Tech vs. No. 5 Baylor) ABC

 Additional Week 5 Highlights:

  • 3 Ole Miss at No. 25 Florida (7 p.m.) was ESPN’s most-viewed game, averaging 3,745,000 viewers and making it the second-most-watched prime-time game of week 5 and up 11% over the comparable 2014 game (Missouri at South Carolina).
  • Arkansas at Tennessee (7 p.m.) was ESPN2’s most-viewed game of the 2015 season, garnering 2,291,000 viewers. The SEC matchup was the third-most-viewed prime-time matchup of week 5 and up 97% over the comparable 2014 game (Duke at Miami (Fla.)).
  • The Buckeyes-Hoosiers matchup was the most-streamed game on WatchESPN, attracting an additional 82,000 average minute impressions to the TV audience, with 422,000 unique viewers totaling 19,600,000 live minutes viewed.

WatchESPN Continues Record 2015 Season
Throughout all of week 5, college football on WatchESPN was viewed on a total of1,900,000 unique devices that streamed 160,900,000 million minutes, up 99% and 108%, respectively over 2014’s week 5.

More impressively, the 2015 season now accounts for the top 5 college football regular season weeks ever on WatchESPN.

Rank Season: Week Unique Devices Minutes Watched
1 2015: Week 1 2,500,000 210,000,000
2 2015 Week 2 2,200,000 193,800,000
3 2015 Week 5 1,900,000 160,900,000
4 2015 Week 3 1,900,000 160,400,000
5 2015: Week 4 1,700,000 141,000,000

Please note: Texas at No. 4 TCU (noon on ABC) television viewership number is not available until Thu, Oct. 8, and thus not accounted for in this release. All games referenced were on Sat, Oct. 3, and comparable year-over-year games were Sat, Sept. 27, 2014.

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