Media companies set a price for advertisers and there are times that they give these advertisers certain guarantees (in this case rating and viewer guarantees).
If they don’t hit those guarantees they have to pay some of the money they received back. It appears that is what is happening to ESPN over the College Football Playoffs.
Despite the efforts of the College Football Playoff committee and some media outlets downplaying the financial hit ESPN took by being forced to televise the two national championship semi-final games on New Year’s Eve, media buyers say the network owes upwards of $20 million in ad makegoods for ratings shortfalls for the two games.
ESPN may have gotten a bit greedy when setting its ratings estimates and offering higher guarantee levels to advertisers for the two games.
The Big Lead reached out to ESPN who had a “no comment” on the report. They simply have to move the semifinals off of New Year’s Eve.
So, however they have to convince the committee they need to do it.