College Football: ESPN & ABC Televise Saturday Night's Top Two Games & Win the Night

· Alabama-Mississippi State: ESPN's Second Highest-Rated Game Ever in Birmingham & ABC Top 10 Metered Markets

· ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 & ESPNU Continue Audience Growth Over Last Year

· ESPN Digital Platforms Continue to Post Growth

ESPN and ABC televised the two most-viewed college football games in prime time on Saturday, Nov. 16, helping the networks finish first and second, respectively, on the night among viewers and all key male and people demographics (18-34, 18-49 and 25-54).

ABC's Saturday Night Football Presented by Windows - USC defeating Stanford 20-17 - was the most-viewed game of the night, averaging 5,010,000 viewers and a HH US 3.2 rating. ESPN's coverage of Alabama beating Mississippi State 20-7 averaged 4,493,000 viewers and a 2.7 HH US rating, making it Saturday night's second most-viewed game. Overall, ABC and ESPN combined to televise five of the seven most-viewed games on Saturday.

In addition, ABC and ESPN generated large audiences for Saturday afternoon games:

· ABC's split national coverage of Michigan State defeating Nebraska 41-28 and Florida State beating Syracuse 59-3 at 3:30 p.m. ET averaged 4,411,000 viewers and a 2.8 HH US rating.

· ESPN's noon telecast of Ohio State's 60-35 win over Illinois averaged 2,892,000 viewers and a 2.1 HH US rating.

Alabama-Mississippi State Delivers ESPN's Second Highest-Rated Game Ever in Birmingham & ABC Top 10 Metered Markets

Nearly two-thirds of the households using televisions in Birmingham on Saturday were tuned into ESPN's Alabama at Mississippi State telecast. The game averaged a 49.6 metered-market rating, and a 64 percent share, in the football-passionate market, making it the network's second highest-rated regular-season college football game in the market ever (Alabama-Auburn on Nov. 24, 2007 averaged 51.2). Memphis was second with a 10.9 rating followed by Nashville (7.2), Atlanta (6.9), Knoxville (6.4), Columbus (6.4), New Orleans (6.0), Dayton (5.6), Charlotte (4.6) and Jacksonville (4.3).

Portland, Ore., was the highest-rated metered market for the Stanford at USC ABC Saturday Night Football telecast, averaging a 10.0 rating. Columbus was second with a 9.8 rating followed by Los Angeles (8.1), Seattle-Tacoma (6.5), San Francisco (6.3), San Diego (5.2), Salt Lake City (4.8), Nashville (4.8), Cincinnati (4.6) and Detroit (4.6).

ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 & ESPNU Generating More Viewers than Last Season

Through week 12 of the season, college football game telecasts across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU are averaging more viewers than at the same point in 2012:

· ABC is averaging 4,639,000 viewers for a 3 percent increase (vs. 4,486,000).

· ESPN is averaging 2,730,000 viewers for a 4 percent increase (vs. 2,614,000).

· ESPN2 is averaging 1,166,000 viewers for an 11 percent increase (vs. 1,055,000).

· ESPNU is averaging 403,000 viewers for a 3 percent increase (vs. 392,000).

ESPN Digital Platforms Continue to Post Growth

On Saturday, college football content accounted for 57 percent of the total ESPN digital audience. Tuesday through Saturday, WatchESPN and ESPN3 had 39,000,000 live minutes viewed, up 6 percent over 2012.