No one is more passionate about sports than college football fans on a Saturday. College towns nationwide are covered in school colors, and the streets are crowded with people fully decked out in the team's gear while tailgating at a nearby parking lot.
With the college football postseason in full swing, these passionate sports enthusiasts are doing everything they can to obtain complete coverage of every game in an effort to keep up with the latest college football updates.
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This is especially true since the College Football Playoffs (CFP) voted in September 2022 to expand the national championship field to 12 teams instead of the original four, making this 2024-25 season the first to feature 12 teams.
Because of this expansion, more games have been added to this year's CFP season, allowing streaming and TV networks to broadcast even more content, have stronger consumer engagement, and, in turn, sell more ad space.
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Streaming platforms are more popular than ever, and more people are paying for streaming and Live TV bundles rather than cable due to the convenience of having all media in one place and the lower prices.
Disney's ESPN longstanding relationship with College Football
Although Disney's ESPN has held the exclusive rights to broadcast the College Football Playoffs since its inception in 2015, in March of this year, ESPN and the CFP announced they had signed a six-year contract extension worth around $7.8 billion.
The contract would allow ESPN to continue having exclusive media rights to the the expanded playoffs and all other affiliated programming until the 2031-32 season.
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"We look forward to enhancing our valued relationship over the next two years and then continuing it for six more as we embark on this new, expanded playoff era,” said ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro.
Disney also landed a ten-year television deal with college football's Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 2020, which began this year. The deal is reportedly worth around $300 million annually, although it has yet to be publicly disclosed.
Disney sports streaming networks make advertising a lucrative business
Thanks to advertising, Disney's (DIS) TV networks and Disney+ are making big bucks on the company's investment in this season's CFP games, thanks to increased viewership.
According to Disney, the CFP contributed to the most-watched days in ESPN's history.
ESPN's college football broadcasts account for over half of the top 100 most-watched cable programs since 1987, including the top 15, with the majority coming from CFP Semifinals or National Championship games.
In the 2023-24 season, ESPN’s coverage of the CFP had a record-breaking year. The three-game CFP was the most-watched in six years and third best of the CFP era, with 23.6 million viewers and 15% year-over-year audience growth across the games.
The CFP National Championship and New Year’s Six had around 15.1 million viewers, the best audience in five years and the fifth highest in the CFP's 10-year history, up double digits year over year.
Thanks to the increase in viewership, especially in Disney's sports broadcasting networks, which include ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2, there's far more engagement with the advertising aired during the games.
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Not only has Disney invested in sports, but advertisers have also allotted more of their budget to obtaining a spot during college football games.
This year, Disney announced it had sold out on all advertising spots for the college football season through the conference championship games and about 90% to 95% for CFP games.
For the first time, ABC, Disney's broadcast network channel, will simulcast the first two rounds of the college playoffs. Starting in 2027, the network will also broadcast the championship game of the 14-team extended playoffs.
“ESPN has been a key piece of the overwhelming success of the playoff during these first ten years. The addition of ABC to this expanded relationship is just the next step in the continued growth of one of the top sporting events of the year.”
According to Navigate Research, a 30-second advertisement during the CFP Championship costs around $1 million to $1.1 million. If the average football game is three hours long and 25% is commercials, that equals 45 minutes to an hour of ads per game, or between 90 and 120 commercials. This means ESPN makes around $100 million per game in ads alone.
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