ESPN owes ad companies $20 million

[UConnTrumbull]

Seriously, who thought New Years EVE would be a good idea? Most adults still at work at the Clemson/OU kick off and everyone else were on their way to get blasted during the other game.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ne...negotiating-20m-bowl-game-ad-makegoods/146777

 

[uconnphil2016]

It was a colossally bad decision

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

lol Bill Hancock tried to claim Star Wars being released hurt TV ratings.

 

[J187Money]

That's ugly. That's why you can't guarantee impressions without trying to optimize ratings.

 

[Jax Husky]

Seriously, who thought New Years EVE would be a good idea? Most adults still at work at the Clemson/OU kick off and everyone else were on their way to get blasted during the other game.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ne...negotiating-20m-bowl-game-ad-makegoods/146777

Should have been semifinals on Saturday 12/26, and the final this past Monday night (1/4). This is way too late for college football, and 12/31 was a recipe for failure.

 

[Woof 101]

Here's where the lawyers come in to argue with the buffoons...

Some back ground music for the meetings.......

 

[UCFBfan]

But CFP committee officials are on record as adamantly supporting the continued airing of the playoff series games on New Year’s Eve as scheduled, which will occur in seven of the remaining 10 years of the 12-year original deal. And that position has been taken even after the 36% combined ratings decline for the two games was disclosed

Crap like this always makes me wonder how some companies still function. They took a 36% ratings decrease and will lose more money from advertisers as the ratings continue to plummet yet they are "adamantly supporting" the notion of airing these games on New Year's Eve. Unreal......

 

[Nostical]

You had a perfect storm this year of a blowout football game with MSU not belonging on the same field as Alabama, a Times Square gathering that always attracts viewers (amidst concerns of possible terror attacks which served to increase the viewership) and the insanity of the network broadcasting the game to constantly remind it's football viewers to watch all the Times Square happenings on a sister network. We were quasi-watching the game while mingling at a party when one of the reminders came on and two women said, "Oh yeah, can we please watch that instead?" Click.

 

[huskyjawz]

Funny ESPN trying to blame CFP. No one forced ESPN to sign the contract where they agreed to pay to show the games on NYE. They believed that the games would sell. That's there problem that they were wrong, and CFP is under no obligation to change.

If ESPN wants to move the dates, then cough up more money; everything has a price.

 

[FDNY99]

You had a perfect storm this year of a blowout football game with MSU not belonging on the same field as Alabama, a Times Square gathering that always attracts viewers (amidst concerns of possible terror attacks which served to increase the viewership) and the insanity of the network broadcasting the game to constantly remind it's football viewers to watch all the Times Square happenings on a sister network. We were quasi-watching the game while mingling at a party when one of the reminders came on and two women said, "Oh yeah, can we please watch that instead?" Click.

Larry I can attest that the terror threat this year was the same as it has been the past few years. But then again it has been heightened in NYC since 9/11 and what we have dealt with since then is different than the rest of the country/world.

 

[uconnfan68]

Seriously, who thought New Years EVE would be a good idea? Most adults still at work at the Clemson/OU kick off and everyone else were on their way to get blasted during the other game.

http://www.broadcastingcable.com/ne...negotiating-20m-bowl-game-ad-makegoods/146777

The NCAA did. It wasn't ESPN's choice. Another brilliant decision.

 

[Stinger92860]

Was laughing when I read this....

While Clemson enters that game undefeated and ranked first in the nation, and Alabama is rated second in the polls, neither is from a major market. While Alabama might have more of a national following. Clemson has virtually none, although many may tune in to see if Clemson can complete its season undefeated.

Yet here we sit in major markets and are considered not worthy of a P5 invite. Hoping that changes soon.

 

[uconnfan68]

The NCAA did. It wasn't ESPN's choice. Another brilliant decision.

Actually, I am wondering if the NCAA had any say in it... maybe just FBS?

 

[tjhusky]

Just shows the great business sense that the NCAA doesn't have. They are a monopolist bully which is why they get away with the things they do (and don't do).

 

[kyleslamb]

That's ugly. That's why you can't guarantee impressions without trying to optimize ratings.

That's ugly. That's why you can't guarantee impressions without trying to optimize ratings.

$20 million in makegoods for an event that was charging three quarters of a million for a 30-second spot really isn't that much. ESPN made billions in ad revenue from those games. Making good on $20 million is a small bucket of change.

My guess is that they only missed their target viewership by single thousands. The sheer math involved on $20 million wouldn't allow for more than 10-20,000 viewers. Remember CPM is every 1,000 viewers, so they probably fell short by about 10-20 CPM, if that.

I don't know why people are shocked by this number. For a major event with that kind of revenue, it's a small number. Being on New Year's Eve doesn't have anything to do with the number, though. They planned on a loss in viewers. They just overshot the mark by a little bit.

 

[whaler11]

$20 million in makegoods for an event that was charging three quarters of a million for a 30-second spot really isn't that much. ESPN made billions in ad revenue from those games. Making good on $20 million is a small bucket of change.

My guess is that they only missed their target viewership by single thousands. The sheer math involved on $20 million wouldn't allow for more than 10-20,000 viewers. Remember CPM is every 1,000 viewers, so they probably fell short by about 10-20 CPM, if that.

I don't know why people are shocked by this number. For a major event with that kind of revenue, it's a small number. Being on New Year's Eve doesn't have anything to do with the number, though. They planned on a loss in viewers. They just overshot the mark by a little bit.

ESPN made billions in ad revenue on those two games? You have a source on that?

 

[kyleslamb]

ESPN made billions in ad revenue on those two games? You have a source on that?

Didn't mean to say billions as I was thinking of the entire playoff deal as a whole when I said that, but still, the two games combined gross hundreds of millions in ad and sponsorship revenue.

There are probably around 130 spots during a college football game. So at around 1 million per spot, the two games probably did between a quarter of a billion and $300 million. So $20 million is more than pennies in a bucket, but ESPN still did well for themselves.

 

[whaler11]

Didn't mean to say billions as I was thinking of the entire playoff deal as a whole when I said that, but still, the two games combined gross hundreds of millions in ad and sponsorship revenue.

There are probably around 130 spots during a college football game. So at around 1 million per spot, the two games probably did between a quarter of a billion and $300 million. So $20 million is more than pennies in a bucket, but ESPN still did well for themselves.

I agree 20 million isn't a big deal - but I doubt they were getting a million a spot for the semis - since that was the high water spot for the title game last year.

 

[kyleslamb]

I agree 20 million isn't a big deal - but I doubt they were getting a million a spot for the semis - since that was the high water spot for the title game last year.

Yeah it was just a hair under, I agree on that. I think a few weeks ago I read they were asking for about $800-900 million a spot, but I just used a million for easier math. The ad rates combined with the event sponsorship, though, probably made the total revenue in the $1 million per spot range.

 

[J187Money]

Yeah it was just a hair under, I agree on that. I think a few weeks ago I read they were asking for about $800-900 million a spot, but I just used a million for easier math. The ad rates combined with the event sponsorship, though, probably made the total revenue in the $1 million per spot range.

Still blew a 20 million hole in somebody's budget. Someone isn't happy. And if they have to hold 6 or 7 more on NYE due to the contract that is 20*6 or 7 which is north of 100 million. Which is real money no matter if it breaks espn or not.

 

[sub legacy]

Crap like this always makes me wonder how some companies still function. They took a 36% ratings decrease and will lose more money from advertisers as the ratings continue to plummet yet they are "adamantly supporting" the notion of airing these games on New Year's Eve. Unreal.

Arrogance and denial are a bad combination.