Star Wars Force Awakens stole $20 million from ESPN’s football broadcast

THE force is not strong with ESPN. The sports giant is $20 million out of pocket because of the latest Star Wars film.

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THE force was not with the College Football Playoff on New Year’s Eve.

Amid the many reasons College Football Playoff Executive Director Bill Hancock gave for the ratings dive, in particular non-competitive games, one person told to him “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” being in theatres may have hurt them.

“This guy said: ‘The force was not with you, Bill,’” Hancock recalled with a laugh during a brief press conference at the JW Marriott Camelback Inn Resort & Spa Friday afternoon.

The ratings, however, were no laughing matter, a drop-off of 36 per cent. The Cotton and Orange Bowl received 9.9 and 9.7 overnight ratings, respectively, while last year, the Rose and Sugar Bowl posted ratings of 15.5 and 15.3. Still, look for the semi-finals to be back on New Year’s Eve next year before moving back to New Year’s Day — as originally planned — the following year, according to Hancock.

“We will not make a knee-jerk reaction after one year. The fact is, we got a little unlucky with the non-competitive nature of the games,” Hancock said, referring to Clemson’s second-half romp of Oklahoma and Alabama dominating Michigan State.

Christian McCaffrey can’t believe nobody watched his 75-yard touchdown.

“We’re just going to have to look at it over the next couple of months, but we don’t anticipate any changes. I don’t want you to read too much into the numbers. We’re not going to. We are not making decisions based on the numbers and we are not going to make decisions based on one year.”

Because the Rose Bowl and Sugar Bowl have contracts that lock them into New Year’s Day, and they won’t always host the semi-finals, the College Football Playoff had to move the games. Hancock said they wanted to be part of the “holiday period” rather than play them after New Year’s Day.

“I believe that was a good move for us,” he said. “We had people in the BCS tell us Jan, 2, 3, 4, 5, just wasn’t working.”

Also, the ratings were so low — far lower than ESPN told advertisers they would be — the network now owes at least $20 million in make-good payments, according to Broadcasting & Cable. Hancock said ESPN will be working on that issue.

Hancock admitted he was “surprised” the numbers were so low. They expected them to be down somewhat, but “they were down more than I anticipated,” he said.

“What we don’t know is how many people were unable [to watch], how many people tuned in and tuned out when the game was non-competitive, and how many people chose to do something else,” he said. “Someone told me the weather was great all around the country, so people were outdoors. We don’t know all the factors.”

Originally published as Star Wars Force Awakens stole $20 million from ESPN’s football broadcast