The College Football Playoff Semifinals (December 31, 2016 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.) delivered double-digit total live audience (TV + streaming) growth and increased its television audience in both games compared to last season's semifinals. The College Football Playoff Semifinals averaged a total live audience of 19,728,000 viewers, up 14% from last season's College Football Playoff Semifinal doubleheader on December 31, 2015 (4 p.m. and 8 p.m.) which averaged a total live audience of 17,360,000 viewers.
New Year's Six Up Double Digits, Easily Most-Streamed New Year's Six Ever
ESPN's presentation of the New Year's Six generated an average overnight rating of 7.8 across the six games and streaming added an additional average minute audience of 293,000 viewers with 926,000 unique viewers watching a total of 63,487,000 minutes. The six game overnight average is up 10% from last season's presentation of the same six games and the streaming audience was up 66%, 30%, and 62%, respectively, in average minute audience, unique viewers and total minutes watched. This year's streaming audience is also up 194%, 104%, and 183% from the first year of the New Year's Six (December 3, 2014 January 1, 2015). The TV overnights were down less than 5% from the record-setting inaugural year (8.2 overnight).
ESPN aired two of the three highest-rated non-Semifinal New Year's Six games this year - Rose Bowl and Capital One Orange Bowl (6.7 overnight). Led by the College Football Playoff Semifinals, this year's New Year's Six games account for three of the four most-streamed non-championship games ever for ESPN based on average minute audience. As previously mentioned, this was also easily the most-streamed New Year's Six ever. Birmingham, which was the No. 1 market in four of the New Year's Six games, led the way as the No. 1 local market for the complete New Year's Six. Complete top 10
CFP Semifinals Up 14% From Last Year
The College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl between Washington and Alabama (December 31 at 3 p.m.) delivered a total live audience of 19,814,000 viewers, a 24% increase from last season's College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Capital One Orange Bowl between Clemson and Oklahoma (December 31, 2015 at 4 p.m.).
The College Football Playoff Semifinal at the PlayStation Fiesta Bowl between Ohio State and Clemson (December 31 at 7 p.m.) delivered a total live audience of 19,646,000 viewers for the lopsided Tigers' 31-0 victory, up 4% from last season's College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic between Michigan State and Alabama (December 31 at 8 p.m.).
On TV only (ESPN and ESPN2), the Peach Bowl averaged 19,344,000 viewers and the Fiesta Bowl averaged 19,236,000 viewers, an increase of 23% and 3%, respectively, from last season's Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl. Both games set streaming records.
Rose Bowl Rating Up Nearly 20%; Streaming Surpassed One Million Unique Viewers
The Rose Bowl Game Presented by Northwestern Mutual between USC and Penn State (January 2 at 5 p.m. ET) generated an overnight rating of 9.4 on ESPN and streaming added an additional average minute audience of 300,000 viewers with 1,103,000 unique viewers watching a total of 75,989,000 minutes, making it by far the best overnight and most-streamed non-semifinal New Year's Six game ever (12 games in three years).
The overnight for the instant-classic was up 19% from last year's Rose Bowl Game (Stanford vs. Iowa) which was played on its traditional January 1 date (5 p.m. on ESPN), while the streaming audience was up 68%, 64%, and 102%, respectively, in average minute audience, unique viewers and total minutes watched. The game peaked at a 12.4 overnight during the final two minutes of the fourth quarter, which included USC's game-winning field goal (9:15 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.).
The City of Brotherly Love earned a 16.7 rating, the highest ever for a bowl game on ESPN (including championship games). L.A. earned a 14.9 overnight and Pittsburgh a 17.0 overnight, the second-highest local market rating for a bowl game on ESPN for both cities (including championship games).
Sugar Bowl Concludes New Year's Six With Overnight Increase, Large Streaming Growth
The Allstate Sugar Bowl between Auburn and Oklahoma (8:30 p.m. on ESPN*) generated an overnight rating of 6.1 and streaming added an additional average minute audience of 198,000 viewers with 732,000 unique viewers watching a total of 43,733,000 minutes. The overnight for the Sooners' victory was up 15% from last year's Sugar Bowl (Oklahoma State vs. Ole Miss) which was played on January 1 (8:30 p.m. on ESPN) while the streaming audience was up 78%, 56%, and 89%, respectively, in average minute audience, unique viewers and total minutes watched.
Cotton Bowl Notches 3.2 Overnight
The Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic between Western Michigan and Wisconsin averaged a 3.2 overnight and streaming added an additional average minute audience of 133,000 viewers with 434,000 unique viewers watching a total of 24,572,000 minutes. The streaming average minute audience was up 55% compared to the 2014 Cotton Bowl.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
06/09/2026
June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...
04/08/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
06/07/2026
Long-developed relationships and informal access, three production models, and c...
06/07/2026
The deal follows Lumine's recent acquisition of Synamedia's video-networ...
06/07/2026
This former SportsCenter producer is shaping local-team studio coverage to surro...
06/07/2026
IMS Productions and FOX Sports deployed more than 100 cameras, 32 onboard feeds,...
06/07/2026
Lumine Group Inc. has announced the completion of its acquisition of the Video Network Business from Synamedia. The business will operate as a standalone compan...
06/07/2026
NASCAR has announced a content and commercial partnership with Motorsport Network, a motorsports and automotive media platform, to distribute NASCAR original co...
06/07/2026
Versant Media Group has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Full Swing, a sports technology company, from Bruin Capital and a group of minority investor...
06/07/2026
DAZN has announced global broadcast rights to 3ICE, a professional hockey format featuring three skaters and a goalkeeper per side, with no power plays or offsi...
06/07/2026
Bundle gains 100 new synths & more
Synth Anthology 5 the largest and most feature-packed edition of UVI's hardware synth emulation bundle, bringing toge...
06/07/2026
Available now via free firmware update
MOTU have just announced that three of their popular audio interfaces now boast official Milan Certification. The 16A...
06/07/2026
Rohde & Schwarz completes Hunter Preliminary Design Review for the Integrated Co...
06/07/2026
The R&S IMAGER from Rohde & Schwarz uses millimeter wave imaging to inspect the ...
06/07/2026
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
06/07/2026
Digital Domain Appoints Industry Veteran Patrick Davenport as Executive Vice Pre...
06/07/2026
Gravity Media USA appoints Brittney Boston as Head of Business Development
Brie Clayton July 6, 2026
0 Comments
The strategic new appointment supports...
06/07/2026
Remote Editing Without Cloud Storage in Resolve
Michael Cioni July 6, 2026
0 Comments
This is a step-by-step guide that demonstrates how to setup your...
06/07/2026
Automatic Caption Translation in Adobe Premiere Pro
Colin Smith July 6, 2026
0 Comments
Here I showcase the innovative automatic caption translation f...
06/07/2026
Flavor's First Ever Managing Director Neal Cohen Retires; Longstanding Execu...
06/07/2026
How Adam Rosenwach Pivoted from Music to Medtech Without Missing a Beat What do the rehearsal room and the boardroom have in common? More than you might think...
06/07/2026
Zhongyi Optics unveils the Dreamy Zone T1 FF Cine Lens Series on Indiegogo with ...
06/07/2026
Techtel debuts insyght: making ST 2110 media discovery easy
intellisphereinsyght2026
6 July Written By Suzanne Costello
Sydney, Australia - 06 July 2026 T...
06/07/2026
Monday 6 July 2026
Sky agrees to acquire ITV Media & Entertainment, creating a ...
06/07/2026
Fresh from his World Cup heroics with Cabo Verde, Roberto Pico' Lopes will join the RT panel for Argentina v Egypt tomorrow and for the England v Norway q...
06/07/2026
Nations have long invested in domestic infrastructure to advance their economies, protect and use their data, and take advantage of technology opportunities in ...
06/07/2026
Every year, the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML) reveals where thousands of AI researchers have decided to put their work.
This year's ...
06/07/2026
A death can be unsuspicious, but it has to be explained
What happened to Ke...
05/07/2026
We've gone to another level of integrating the graphics into the set architecture' - Zac Fields, SVP, Graphic Technology and Integration, FOX Sports...
05/07/2026
Browser-based and desktop apps available
Digital Sunset Studios have been busy working on an interesting project: a free software tool that provides compute...
04/07/2026
When Canada qualified for the FIFA World Cup 2026, OneSoccer knew this wasn'...
04/07/2026
Celebrates company's 80th anniversary
Rhodes have recently revealed that they will be producing a limited run of electric pianos in celebration of their...
04/07/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Empower Youth Broadcasting Program
Brie Clayton July 3, 2026
0 Comments
Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro and Blackmagi...
04/07/2026
iZotope Joins Boris FX
Boris Yamnitsky July 3, 2026
0 Comments
iZotope, the team behind RX and Ozone, is joining Boris FX. A letter from founder Boris...
04/07/2026
April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...
03/07/2026
New bundle & three Single Packs
Continuing to expand their already sizeable orchestral collection, VSL's latest release introduces three new Single Pack...
03/07/2026
Venue installs new ATC-equipped control room
LSO St Luke's, a unique music venue that also serves as the home of the London Symphony Orchestra, have rec...
03/07/2026
Caden Pearson appointed new Commissioning Editor for NITV
3 July, 2026
Media releases
National Indigenous Television (NITV) has strengthened its commitment...
03/07/2026
1 February 2023
SHARE Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email
Munich, Germany, 1st February 2023: Cinegy GmbH, the premier provider of software technology for digit...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
03/07/2026
Death Star
Andy Marken July 2, 2026
0 Comments
Look, I can't get involved. I've got work to do. It's not that I like the Empire; I hate i...
03/07/2026
Berklee's New Visual Identity: Honoring Our History, Building for What's...
03/07/2026
Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance Two Gates Foundation grants will expand wastewater surveillance and AI-driven dis...
03/07/2026
Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration Using smell-sensing neurons and ad...
02/07/2026
Entering her senior year, this hometown girl is paving a career in live sports production gaining experience in replay and audio and as a TD
In the live-sports...
02/07/2026
In-venue and creative video staffers at the professional and collegiate level ha...
The College Football Playoff Semifinals (December 31, 2016 at 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.) delivered double-digit total live audience (TV + streaming) growth and increased its television audience in both games compared to last season's semifinals. The College Football Playoff Semifinals averaged a total live audience of 19,728,000 viewers, up 14% from last season's College Football Playoff Semifinal doubleheader on December 31, 2015 (4 p.m. and 8 p.m.) which averaged a total live audience of 17,360,000 viewers.
