ESPN made a huge investment when it bought the rights to the College Football playoffs. Now, it appears they will have to open the vault again. John Consoli of Broadcasting @ Cable is reporting ESPN owes advertisers around $20 million in make goods after ratings for the College Football Playoff semifinal games, which aired on New Year’s Eve, fell well below last year’s standard.
The expected payments come after the games failed to reach ratings estimates with higher guarantee levels being offered. He wrote that companies are also concerned about future broadcasts, with seven of the next 10 years of games also slated for New Year’s Eve.
Richard Deitsch of Sports Illustrated, the most influential media columnist on the web, pointed out overall viewership between the two semifinals was down more than 12 million from last year’s games. Last year’s national semi-finals were held Jan. 1 at the Rose and Sugar Bowls.
Stewart Mandell and Bruce Feldman of Fox Sports spoke with CFP executive director Bill Hancock about the situation but he wasn’t prepared to make any blanket statements after one year especially since New Year’s Eve falls on a Saturday next year and the Rose and Sugar will host the semis on their traditional New Year’s Day date in 2018.
Hancock suggested the lopsided nature of the games played a major role in the drop off, but was willing to admit things could change if a trend develops after five years. It should be interesting to see how ESPN reacts if their major advertisers became openly agitated and upset.
