Birmingham declared top ESPN market for 12th consecutive year
ByPat Byington
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Want clear evidence Birmingham is a sports crazy town?
According to Stephanie Divito, ESPN’s Senior Director of Media Intelligence, the Magic City was ranked number #1 in terms of viewership for ESPN’s flagship network in 2020.
In fact, the Birmingham television market has been ESPN’s top ranked market since 2008. Yep, that’s not a misprint – 12 consecutive years!
“This is one of those stats I can pretty much set my watch to, Divito told Bham Now. “Every year we can count on Birmingham coming through for ESPN.”
In layman’s terms, the ranking is based on Nielson ratings in 56 different markets in the United States. It is based on the percent of TV homes in the market that are tuned in to ESPN in any given quarter hour during the day.
2020 Rankings
Who were the other top ESPN markets?
Joining Birmingham in the top 10
2. New Orleans
3. Richmond
4. Louisville
5. Greenville, SC/Asheville, NC
6. Knoxville
7. Greensboro-High Point, N.C.
8. Charlotte
9. Memphis
10. Columbus, Ohio
We Are #1 on the Deuce & U
Birmingham’s rating dominance is not only on ESPN. In 2020, we were also the leading market on ESPN 2 and ESPNU. And they aren’t one offs
Birmingham has been the top ESPNU market since 2013. We’ve got a 3 year number one streak on ESPN 2.
We Love College Sports
Why is Birmingham an ESPN rating juggernaut? College sports.
“A large piece of it is tied to the love of college sports, especially college football which is not surprising, added Divito. “A good example, the latest college football semi-finals championship game on New Year’s Day between Alabama and Notre Dame – delivered a 46 rating, which means just under half of homes in the market were watching the games at any given point, which is huge.”
In addition to college football, Birmingham is also one of the top markets for Monday Night Football.
“Birmingham tends to over-deliver for a lot of programs not just college sports, but clearly it is a driver,” concluded Divito.
Bottomline, when it comes to watching sports on ESPN, ESPNU and ESPN 2 no one beats Birmingham. Period.
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