on Nielsen Ratings for Bowl Championship Series Games The Effects of Outcome Uncertainty, Scoring, and Pregame Expectations

AbstractThis study utilizes Nielsen ratings to estimate the factors that influence viewershipfor Bowl Championship Series telecasts. Our modeling demonstrates increasedstart-of-game ratings for contests of higher absolute quality, but not of anticipatedhigher relative quality. Little support is generated for the notion of consumer pre-ference for scoring. However, the relationship between outcome uncertainty andtelevision ratings is dynamic as consumers initially prefer more certain games, butratings increase systematically throughout a contest when the outcome of that con-test becomes more uncertain. Preferences also exist for games in which actual out-comes match pregame expectations.KeywordsNielsen ratings, television viewership, uncertainty of outcome, scoring effects 1 College of Business, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL, USA 2 Department of Recreation, Sport and Tourism, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USACorresponding Author:Steven Salaga, College of Business, Florida Institute of Technology, 150 W. University Blvd., Melbourne,FL 32901, USA.Email: ssalaga@fit.edu