• by Wayne Friedman , November 28, 2023

Along with the NFL, college football has shown strong key TV metrics this season -- with double-digit percentage gains for live, linear TV viewer impressions as well as national TV advertising spend.

Total national TV advertising on nine TV networks is up 19% to $1.1 billion through nearly three months of the college football season (August 26-November 26) versus the same period a year ago.

Total impressions are 15% higher to 78 billion, according to estimates from EDO Ad EnGage.

Four major broadcast networks witnessed higher viewer impressions, with Fox up 12% (15.6 billion), CBS 47% higher (12.6 billion), ABC seeing growth of 10% (to a leading 21.3 billion) and NBC up 379% (6.2 billion).

ESPN had the second-best impression total overall -- at 18.6 billion, slipping 4%.

Five TV networks grew national TV spend: Fox, 11% ($246 million); NBC, 246% ($92.4 million); CBS, 54% ($288.3 million); ESPN, 4% ($152.4 million); and the NFL Network, 24% ($1.4 million).

ABC posted the second best TV ad-spend results with $273.3 million, down just 5% from a year ago.

Other networks airing college football that yield spending and impression results, according to EDO Ad EnGage, include ESPN2 ($40.8 million), ESPNU ($2.5 million) and Fox Sports 2 ($258,600).

Consistent with the last few years of college football major TV advertisers include Home Depot, Nissan, Geico, Sonic Drive-In, State Farm, Allstate, Capital One, AT&T Wireless, Taco Bell, Progressive Insurance, Ford Motor, Liberty Mutual, Dr Pepper and Coca-Cola, among others.

Through 10 weeks of the NFL regular season, the average game among five major TV platforms is up 10.4% to 17.7 million in Nielsen TV-measured viewers.