Georgia’s 22–19 overtime victory against Texas in the SEC championship game drew higher TV ratings than any other conference title matchup last weekend.

As conference championship games took on new meanings ahead of the first 12-team College Football Playoff, 16.6 million people watched Georgia-Texas on ABC on Saturday afternoon, according to Nielsen ratings. 

That’s down 5% from Alabama-Georgia on CBS last year when the Crimson Tide and Bulldogs were fighting for one of four CFP spots. This year, both Georgia and Texas were virtually guaranteed to make the CFP, even with a loss.

The Big Ten championship, which also featured two eventual Playoff teams, saw a viewership bump from 2023, as 10.5 million viewers tuned in to see Oregon’s 45–37 win over Penn State, making it the second-most-watched title game this season.

• SEC (Georgia-Texas): 16.6 million on ABC 
• Big Ten (Oregon–Penn State): 10.5 million on CBS
• Big 12 (Arizona State–Iowa State): 6.9 million on ABC
• ACC (Clemson-SMU): 6 million on ABC
• Mountain West (Boise State–UNLV): 3 million on Fox

The Big 12 and ACC championship games were down slightly from last year’s matchups, while the Mountain West had its most-watched title contest on record.

Most-Watched Teams: Georgia Tops SEC-Heavy List

During the regular season, Georgia was the most-watched team in college football, averaging 8.6 million viewers per game when playing on Nielsen-rated networks. The Bulldogs’ Oct. 19 win at Texas was the most-watched game of the regular season, drawing 13.2 million viewers on ABC.

The SEC had eight of the 10 most-watched teams this season, with the Big Ten’s Ohio State and Michigan the only non-SEC schools to crack the list revealed by Nielsen on Wednesday.

In the Nielsen report, team rankings were limited to schools that appeared in at least four televised games across networks. Because not all conference-specific networks are currently measured, all were excluded to keep comparisons equal.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s ongoing preparation for an existence without domestic NBA media rights continues to gather steam, representing one of the unlikelier stories in the media industry. 

The TNT Sports parent this week completed a large-scale distribution agreement with Comcast, the second-largest U.S. cable company, that will cover not only domestic distribution but also the U.K. and Ireland. Following a somewhat similar deal WBD struck in September with Charter Communications, the No. 1 carrier, Comcast will continue to carry key WBD networks such as TNT, TBS, CNN, Discovery, Food Network, HGTV, and TLC.

The Comcast pact marks the latest in a steady flow of new business for WBD under CEO David Zaslav since the NBA announced in late July its plan to move forward without TNT Sports holding national rights with the league, starting with the 2025–2026 season. 

In the last four months, WBD has also moved heavily into college football and basketball, picking up partial game rights to the Big 12, Big East, and Mountain West conferences as well as the College Football Playoff, in turn helping protect the company’s critical carriage fees. The run of activity additionally includes the resolution of WBD’s lawsuit against the NBA, with the company acquiring a broad set of league content and highlight rights, including live rights in several international territories, and a “reimagined and enhanced” partnership for NBA Digital.

That settlement further involved a three-way agreement with ESPN, paving the way for TNT Sports’ Inside the NBA to move to the Disney-owned network.

“These broad and multiyear agreements underscore the value and appeal of our linear portfolio,” said Bruce Campbell, WBD chief revenue and strategy officer, of the Comcast agreement, which included a resolution of an outstanding legal dispute there, too. 

Stock Run-Up

Investors have clearly taken notice of WBD’s ongoing reconstruction. After hitting a 52-week low in early August, days after the NBA media deals were announced, WBD shares have grown more than 60%, and by more than 15% just in the last month. 

There’s still a big hill to climb, though, as the stock is still less than half the level it was at when the current company was created following a 2022 merger with Discovery, Inc. There’s also an investor lawsuit against the company that is seeking class-action status. But it’s becoming increasingly clear there indeed can be life for WBD without its long-held NBA live rights deal in the U.S., and has given some vindication to Zaslav’s much-scrutinized 2022 comment that WBD didn’t “have to have the NBA.”

The Formula One finale in Abu Dhabi had been uneventful for the last two years as both championships had been decided before the race. But the 2024 edition was different, as it delivered the decisive constructors’ championship points for McLaren and also served as Lewis Hamilton’s final race with Mercedes.

The added drama helped ESPN pull one million viewers, a record viewership number for the event, which started at 7:55 a.m. ET. The number is up about 8% versus last year, and nicked the previous record of 998,000 set in 2021—when Hamilton and Max Verstappen battled until the final lap for the drivers’ championship in one of the most controversial finishes in F1 history.

F1’s 2024 season averaged 1.1 million across ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC, tying the same number from last year, but down versus the all-time record of 1.21 million viewers set in 2022. The final number ESPN reported does not include all 24 races this year because the Brazilian Grand Prix, which averaged just 554,000 viewers, was originally scheduled to air on ESPN2 but aired on ESPNU for the first 68 minutes as the race was rescheduled due to inclement weather. 

Seven races hit viewership records this year, most notably the Miami Grand Prix, which drew 3.1 million viewers, the most of any race in the U.S. However, the other two U.S.-based races did not set rating records. The U.S. Grand Prix held in Austin in October averaged 1.3 million viewers, up from 2023 but down from 1.4 million in 2021, while the Las Vegas Grand Prix was down to 905,000 from 1.3 million in its inaugural race.

F1 has made a concerted effort to boost its U.S. viewership, particularly after the market responded to the Netflix docuseries Formula One: Drive to Survive, which premiered in 2019. The Miami Grand Prix was added in 2022, followed by Las Vegas in 2023. Haas will also be joined by another U.S.-based team starting in 2026 when General Motors will enter the fold as Cadillac. 

While viewership has plateaued over the past two years, the numbers are still double the 554,000 average in 2018, when ESPN first acquired the rights to the motorsport league away from NBC. In 2022, ESPN signed a three-year deal worth about $75 million to $90 million to keep the broadcasting rights to F1 until 2025.

With a more competitive season expected in 2025—and Hamilton, a fan favorite, likely to be more competitive with Ferrari, the sport’s most popular team—next year could provide an accurate assessment of the ceiling of the country’s interest.