SBJ Media: Fox Focused On Winning CFB Noon Window

When my 18-year-old daughter asked me to go on a hike with her yesterday, I said yes immediately. She wanted to hike nine miles to the top of Old Rag Mountain in Shenandoah National Park. That included a three-mile hike uphill with a small rock climb at the end. I made it, but I’ve been gobbling Advil ever since.

FOX'S GOAL: WIN NOON WINDOW FOR COLLEGE FOOTBALL

One of the easiest sports media predictions this fall is that more people will watch " College GameDay ” on ESPN than " Big Noon Kickoff " on Fox . But if you talk to Fox execs, they say that the network won’t pay attention to any ratings comparisons between the two shows. “I’m truly not going to worry much about what those ratings look like in the first two or three weeks of the season,” said Fox Sports Exec VP and Head of Strategy & Analytics Mike Mulvihill . “I just want to see where we are in November relative to where we are in September. That’s going to be the biggest measure for me.”





” on than " " on . But if you talk to Fox execs, they say that the network won’t pay attention to any ratings comparisons between the two shows. “I’m truly not going to worry much about what those ratings look like in the first two or three weeks of the season,” said Fox Sports Exec VP and Head of Strategy & Analytics . “I just want to see where we are in November relative to where we are in September. That’s going to be the biggest measure for me.” Mind you, this is the same Fox Sports outfit whose execs back in 2013 confidently -- and incorrectly -- predicted that FS1's ratings would be on equal footing with ESPN around two to three years after launching. Fox’s position this fall will be that its pregame show is one part of the network’s overall strategy to put its most competitive college football games in the noon ET window on Saturdays. I quoted Mulvihill extensively in my column this week about that strategy, and he said, “My No. 1 goal is that we should win noon by a wider margin that any other network wins any other window," he said. If Fox achieves Mulvihill’s top goal, it will consider the strategy around its pregame show a success, too.





around two to three years after launching. Fox’s position this fall will be that its pregame show is one part of the network’s overall strategy to put its most competitive college football games in the noon ET window on Saturdays. I quoted Mulvihill extensively in my column this week about that strategy, and he said, “My No. 1 goal is that we should win noon by a wider margin that any other network wins any other window," he said. If Fox achieves Mulvihill’s top goal, it will consider the strategy around its pregame show a success, too. Mulvihill: “The idea is for us to use that new pregame show and aggressively program the noon window so that the two can work hand-in-hand and allow us to hopefully build our college football identity around being the first must-see destination of each Saturday. It’s really hard for me to talk about the pregame in isolation or the noon game strategy in isolation because I really do feel like they are all part of the same idea.”



MORNING KICKOFFS FOR PAC-12 STILL A 2020 POSSIBILITY

The Pac-12 will not schedule any of its football games at 9:00am PT this season, as conference officials told the San Jose Mercury News’ Jon Wilner last week. But Fox execs indicated that early games could be part of the 2020 schedule if it is marketed as a one-off event, similar to the NHL Winter Classic or a college basketball game on an aircraft carrier. “We would be interested in exploring opportunities beyond this season,” Mulvihill said. “I take it as a validation of our noon strategy that we have another major conference that’s open to participating and doing it in what would be an unconventional way.”





will not schedule any of its football games at 9:00am PT this season, as conference officials told the San Jose Mercury News’ last week. But Fox execs indicated that early games could be part of the 2020 schedule if it is marketed as a one-off event, similar to the or a college basketball game on an aircraft carrier. “We would be interested in exploring opportunities beyond this season,” Mulvihill said. “I take it as a validation of our noon strategy that we have another major conference that’s open to participating and doing it in what would be an unconventional way.” The most likely matchups next season could involve non-conference games that include Big Ten schools that already would have been established in that window this season. Washington hosts Michigan in Week 1 in 2020, while Oregon hosts Ohio State in Week 2. I would expect Fox to push for one of those matchups to be the Pac-12’s first 9:00am local time kickoff.

LATE AUGUST SLOTS DELIVER FOR GOLF, COLLEGE FOOTBALL

Two sports used simple scheduling tweaks to attract bigger TV audiences over the weekend. ESPN moved its college football kickoff up by a week, and the PGA Tour moved the Tour Championship earlier. The bottom line: TV numbers in both cases suggest that the strategies paid off.





moved its college football kickoff up by a week, and the moved the earlier. The bottom line: TV numbers in both cases suggest that the strategies paid off. ESPN kicked off its college football coverage a week earlier than normal with a marquee primetime game in Florida - Miami that attracted 5.97 million viewers and marks the cable network’s best Saturday opener on record. ESPN has carried early games college football games previously (like Pac-12 games from Australia ), but not a ratings draw like Florida-Miami. ESPN sources said it’s likely that they will schedule similar high-quality matchups for what it has branded as Week 0. It already has plans to show the previously scheduled Notre Dame - Navy from Ireland as a Week 0 matchup next season.





- that attracted 5.97 million viewers and marks the cable network’s best Saturday opener on record. ESPN has carried early games college football games previously (like games from ), but not a ratings draw like Florida-Miami. ESPN sources said it’s likely that they will schedule similar high-quality matchups for what it has branded as Week 0. It already has plans to show the previously scheduled - from as a Week 0 matchup next season. The PGA Tour earned plenty of headlines for its decision to move the FedEx Cup Playoffs to August, where it avoided going up against NFL games. The move has been a TV hit, punctuated by Rory McIlroy’s win yesterday at the Tour Championship, which posted an overnight TV rating that was 33% higher than the average for all Tour Championship final rounds since the start of the FedEx Cup Playoffs in 2007. The 2.9 rating is the Tour Championship’s second-best final round overnight in the last decade, behind only last year’s record-breaking figure for Tiger Woods' win in late September.





SPEED READS

I keep getting emails on the subject of who has replaced Jack Whitaker as sports media’s essayist. The Football Bowl Association’s Doug Kelly wrote in to agree with John Wildhack ’s nomination of ESPN's Tom Rinaldi . Kelly: “I have always found Tom’s work to be somewhat understated for reasons that I can’t really fathom. Perhaps it is because he is such a down-to-earth person.” Who else are we missing on this list? Please email your thoughts to jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com.





as sports media’s essayist. The Football Bowl Association’s wrote in to agree with ’s nomination of ESPN's . Kelly: “I have always found Tom’s work to be somewhat understated for reasons that I can’t really fathom. Perhaps it is because he is such a down-to-earth person.” Who else are we missing on this list? Please email your thoughts to jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com. HBO’s “ Ballers ” has always hit on current and thorny NFL issues -- perhaps due to former player Rashard Mendenhall serving as supervising producer. Last night’s Season 5 premiere had a fictional storyline about the Hunt family selling the Chiefs (souring on the sport in the wake of Tyreek Hill ’s domestic violence issues), the growing acceptance of four-game PED suspensions and the upcoming expiration of the NFL CBA. The show also got a Twitter shout out from Sen. Elizabeth Warren last night ( Dwayne Johnson was reading her book in a scene).





” has always hit on current and thorny issues -- perhaps due to former player serving as supervising producer. Last night’s Season 5 premiere had a fictional storyline about the family selling the (souring on the sport in the wake of ’s domestic violence issues), the growing acceptance of four-game PED suspensions and the upcoming expiration of the NFL CBA. The show also got a shout out from Sen. last night ( was reading her book in a scene). Andrew Luck ’s retirement has made big headlines -- even finding its way to network shows like ABC’s “ GMA ,” NBC’s “ Today ” and “ CBS Weekend News .” Now NFL TV partners will have to adjust to a Colts team that no longer has its marquis name. ESPN has Colts- Saints locked into a Week 16 “ Monday Night Football ” matchup, while Fox has Colts- Texans in Week 12 on “ Thursday Night Football .” The NFL could flex the Colts out of NBC’s “ Sunday Night Football ” in Week 5, but that game has a national draw in the Chiefs . Beyond primetime, Luck’s retirement means CBS has one less AFC team to potentially include in its Sunday national windows.





’s retirement has made big headlines -- even finding its way to network shows like ABC’s “ ,” NBC’s “ ” and “ .” Now TV partners will have to adjust to a team that no longer has its marquis name. has Colts- locked into a Week 16 “ ” matchup, while has Colts- in Week 12 on “ .” The NFL could flex the Colts out of NBC’s “ ” in Week 5, but that game has a national draw in the . Beyond primetime, Luck’s retirement means has one less team to potentially include in its Sunday national windows. The Luck news even crossed over onto the “ Baseball Tonight ” podcast today, with ESPN’s Buster Olney and Tim Kurkjian wondering what it would have been like if Sandy Koufax , who retired at age 30, had done so in the age of social media. Kurkjian: “It would have been unimaginable. … Twitter and the internet would have broken. As great as Andrew Luck is … he’s not Sandy Koufax over his last five years.”





” podcast today, with ESPN’s and wondering what it would have been like if , who retired at age 30, had done so in the age of social media. Kurkjian: “It would have been unimaginable. … and the internet would have broken. As great as Andrew Luck is … he’s not Sandy Koufax over his last five years.” NBC Sports Group’s PR shop is getting into the spirit for this weekend’s NASCAR Throwback Weekend at Darlington Raceway. Given that I used to write for a publication called CableFax Daily, I appreciate the old school release.

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