Orlando Bowls To Be Televised In 3D
The 2011 Champs Sports Bowl and 2012 Capital One Bowl are two of just six postseason bowl games tabbed for telecasts in a three-dimensional format on ESPN 3D this season.
ESPN announced that it is scheduled to televise 26 college football games in 3D this season with the Capital One Bowl being the first such telecast in 2012, and the first of the traditional New Year’s Day bowl games. This year’s Capital One Bowl will take place on January 2 at 1:00 p.m. while the Champs Sports Bowl will take place December 29 at 5:30 p.m. Both games will also be televised on the ESPN flagship as well in standard format.
Over 10 million viewers took in Orlando bowls last year. The Capital One Bowl is traditionally one of the ratings winners among BCS and non-BCS games alike, averaging a robust 6.52 rating since 2007. That figure sits just behind the Discover Orange Bowl’s 6.59 rating during that time period as well as the three other traditional BCS games (Tostitos Fiesta, Allstate Sugar and Rose) while no other non-BCS game was able to reach a 5.0 mark during that time frame. Historically, the Capital One Bowl remains a stalwart in the TV ratings department, averaging a robust 7.6 over the course of the last 27 years.
Orlando’s second game, the Champs Sports Bowl, ranks 10th among all bowl games in ratings from 2007-2010, boasting a 3.97 mark featuring 6.5 million viewers.
The Capital One Bowl owns the first selection after the BCS in the Southeastern and Big Ten conferences. The Champs Sports Bowl is in its second year selecting from the ACC’s second non-BCS pick and the Big East’s top non-BCS selection (or Notre Dame).
ESPN kicks off its 3D coverage of this season with the September 1 UNLV vs. Wisconsin matchup. A total of nine of the 16 announced regular season games will feature teams from Orlando Bowl Week partner schools (i.e. SEC, Big Ten, ACC or Big East) while 3D coverage concludes with the January 9 Allstate BCS National Championship game.
ESPN 3D is available nationwide to more than 65 million households and has carriage agreements with Comcast, DIRECTV, Time Warner Cable and Verizon FIOS. The games are available locally on Bright House Networks.