While it has been a few days since the big game, no not the Super Bowl, but the first ever National Championship Game between Ohio State and Oregon, the results have been nothing short of amazing. Creating a big televised live event, drives users to actually schedule their lives around the viewing as opposed to watching on a time, or even a day delayed basis. Viewers tuned in, on ESPN, giving them one of their highest ratings ever. But what also was impressive was how much social media grew as well. Facebook and Twitter saw huge momentum regarding comments and photos about the game.
For ESPN, the investment likely paid off with substantial advertising during the game. Whether social media players drew more revenue remains to be seen. But live events, and those that deliver competition, draw viewership unlike anything else on television. It certainly keeps viewers tied to their cable subscriptions to assure access to this programming.
Just Sunday, we had the Golden Globes, another live event for those who love TV and movies and fashion. And today's Oscar nomination announcements will lead to another live awards event show. NFL playoffs are this weekend and the Super Bowl is just a few short weeks away. NBC has used live Broadway type shows to drive viewership as other networks look deeper into their programming mix to devise other live event programming to pursue viewership and advertising dollars.
With so many choices of content to watch today across so many platforms, live event based television continues to drive people back to their television sets, even if just for a night. And once viewers are hooked, it is a rare chance to remind them through promotional ads, what other content is available on that channel. Live programming is the successful hook to keep them tethered to their television set.
