The game itself will last about three hours of real time and be broadcast on ESPN, but the amount of airtime that the inaugural College Football Playoff will receive throughout the entire family of channels in ESPN’s suite is something like 12-times more than that. That’s because, for the second year in a row, the Worldwide Leader will be broadcasting the season’s final game on more than a dozen television and radio channels in what the company has dubbed its “CFP Megacast.”
Last year’s tilt between the Florida State Seminoles and Auburn Tigers was the first event in which ESPN dedicated an entire night and all of its outlets to a single event, and it was received as such a huge success that the green light was given almost immediately after the game to repeat the experience the following year.
“When we super-serve the hard-core fan, I think that is when ESPN is at its best,” ESPN’s vice president for college football programming Ilan Ben-Hanan told Sports Illustrated. “You’ve seen that with our World Cup coverage and some other events.”
For this year’s game between the Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes, ESPN will use its main feed as well as those on ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN Classic, ESPN Deportes, ESPN Goal Line, ESPN Radio, ESPN Deportes Radio and five variations on ESPN3. Myriad coaches and analysts from the college football world, and even a fair share of personalities from other sports worlds, are taking part in the event and will offer their thoughts on what’s going on on the field from a wide variety of angles.
The one extra feed that grabbed my attention last year was the “BCS Film Room,” which had and ESPN personality sitting in a room watching the game with a number of current college football head coaches, analyzing what was taking place on the field and offering an in-depth look into the action in real-time—it was unlike anything I’d ever experienced. The event was so well received that it was bumped up to a more prominent home on ESPN2 this year. The coaches in the film room for Oregon and OSU are Mississippi State’s Dan Mullen, Pitt’s Pat Narduzzi, Nebraska’s Mike Riley and Vanderbilt’s Derek Mason.
SI highlighted a few of the other features this year that might be intriguing to the superfan or the individual looking for a way to avoid listening to Kirk Herbstreit ogle over his alma mater for three hours. One that seems like a can’t miss, at least for a part of the game, is a new feature this year called “Off the Ball,” which will air on ESPNews. In this take on the game, analysts Kevin Carter, Matt Millen, Jason Sehorn, Matt Stinchcomb, Amani Toomer and host Bob Wischusen will focus on the action taking place (as the name suggests) away from the ball—so your battles in the trenches, blocks that open up holes, receiver vs. defensive back matchups, etc.
With the megacast, ESPN isn’t expecting to draw massive amounts of eyeballs to each telecast. Naturally, the large majority of the viewing public will be tuned-in to the main feed on ESPN. The other channels are about much more than viewing statistics, according to the network. “The executions outside of ESPN are really meant to be additive and a lot less about what kind of eyeballs they bring in,” Ben-Hanan said. “If you look back at the ratings for the Megacast last year, we were talking only 0.2 and 0.1 ratings. [Last year’s Title Talk element on ESPN2 drew 389,000 viewers, while Film Room drew 100,000 on ESPNNews]. What we get out of the Megacast is the opportunity to experiment and innovate. It’s the opportunity to make a big event feel bigger. Those things matter more than the ultimate Nielsen rating.”
All that said, ESPN should expect to see another record-setting kind of performance throughout its network of channels. Some of the other viewing options include:
- ESPN Classic will feature “Sounds of the Game” with just natural sound and no announcers. This telecast will also include the pregame and halftime performances of the Oregon and Ohio State marching bands.
- SpiderCam coverage on ESPN3, which is a view of the game from above the stadium. ESPN3 will also offer a commercial-free option with cameras located in special student sections.
- ESPN Goal Line will offer a full-time split-screen application showing the live game action, along with immediate replays of every play and isolated camera feeds of both head coaches, enhanced statistics and the ESPN Radio broadcast call. The Command Center will have other Megacast content during on-field media timeouts.
So what kinds of numbers are they expecting? Consider this: Ohio State’s win over Alabama drew 28.3 million viewers while Oregon’s win over Florida State drew 28.2 million viewers—the two largest cable television broadcasts in history. If the pattern holds true, and the game is competitive heading into the final quarter, this game could become the single-most watched college football game ever, broadcast or cable be damned. The current record belongs to the 2006 National Championship Game, which saw Vince Young’s Texas Longhorns upset Matt Leinart and the USC Trojans in the final seconds of a 41-38 shootout. That game averaged 35.6 million viewers and was broadcast on ABC.