Saturday - December 22, 2007

File under Bwa-Ha-Ha 

NBC: Blindsided by Notre Dame

So goes the headline at businessweek.

Apparently, the ratings on ND games were so bad this year that NBC is handing out free ad time to sponsors to compensate them for the fact that no one saw their paid ads. The average rating this year for NBC-ND game? An embarrassing 1.8.

Yes, the decline from 2005's 3.6 is significant, but even in 2006, when ND matched their 2005 record, the ratings were down to 2.9, a 20% decline from 2005. Perhaps the 3.6 is the artificially inflated, first year bump?