Versus Tackles Biggest College Football Audience With USC-Stanford
Network Offers Tripleheader Nov. 22; Concludes Coverage Nov. 29 With Texas Tech Action
By Multi Channel News Staff -- Multichannel News, 11/19/2008 11:00:00 AM
Versus recorded its most-watched college football game ever with its presentation of USC’s win over Stanford Saturday night.
The Comcast Corp.-owned competition service averaged a 1.0 household rating and 1.03 million viewers with its coverage of the Nov. 15 contest, according to Nielsen Media Research data.
The cablecast, a rematch of last season’s upset by Stanford, made Versus a top-five rated ad-supported cable networkon Saturday between 7 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. among men 18 to 49 and men 25 to 54, according to network officials. The contest peaked at a 1.3 rating during the 9 p.m. half hour.
Outside of the NHL playoffs and Tour de France telecasts, USC-Stanford was the second most-watched telecast ever on Versus relative to households and total viewers, just trailing the live World Extreme Cagefighting event on June 1.
This Saturday, Versus has scheduled a college football tripleheader: the 125th anniversary of the Ivy League match-up between Yale and Harvard at noon (ET); Air Force at No.16 TCU at 3:30 p.m.; and No. 21 Oregon State and Arizona at 7 p.m.
The network’s coverage culminates on Nov. 29 with a recently added game between second-ranked Texas Tech and Baylor, followed by an in-state rivalry between No. 24 Oregon and No. 21 Oregon State. The Ducks-Beavers contest could determine the PAC-10 championship.
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Our local Time/Warner cable system claimed to carry the game on both a HD channel (Versa Golf) and an SD channel. Only the SD channel worked. The HD channel went blank screen.
The coverage was actually quite good, comparable to a regional Fox broadcast. The halftime efforts need a little work.
John Mayberry - 11/20/2008 9:53:00 AM EST
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