• Broadcasting & Cable, Monday, September 25, 2006 12 PM

If Houston is any indication, the "Monday Night Football" habit is a tough one to kick. And ESPN may be scoring even bigger audiences than its record-breaking numbers show. Arbitron has been testing its portable people meters in the city, which measure out-of-home viewing with results for cable-only sports broadcasts that suggest a chunk of the broadcast audience moves to where the action is--a bar or restaurant. For the Sept. 17 Cowboys-Redskins game, broadcast on NBC, out-of-home viewing in the 18-49 demo was 17.8 percent--a little above average--while about one-quarter of viewing of the next day's ESPN "Monday Night Football" was out of home. "The data suggest that viewers who do not subscribe to cable may be going where they can get it in order to see major events televised on cable only," says Arbitron spokesman Thom Mocarsky.

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