FOX Sports has seen an increase in live TV ratings thanks to an unlikely sport that continues to grow in popularity in the US.
A NCAA college sport has given the massive TV network astonishing results.
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Women’s college basketball has been a massive hit for TV viewers recently, but there has been another sport that has joined in on being a ratings success.
Two years ago, Fox Sports came up with the idea to air college volleyball in NFL-adjacent windows.
An example: Most of the United States watched Wisconsin and Minnesota battle in college volleyball after a Green Bay Packers-Minnesota Vikings game while others saw Michigan-Ohio State before an NFL window.
Fox Sports received 1.7 million viewers as a result, and it’s the most-watched regular-season volleyball window in history.
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In 2024, Fox aired 18 matches across their networks, including four games that involved big schools like Texas, Wisconsin, Stanford, and Minnesota.
Fox Sports VP Derek Crocker spoke to Front Office Sports and shared how the network has been pleased with the growing sport of women’s volleyball.
“We’ve seen with other properties where obviously you can use the strength of the NFL lead-in to really expose new viewers to sports that are growing—like women’s volleyball,” Crocker said.
“Seeing those numbers and how well it did really showcased the power of what women’s volleyball could be.
“We were really encouraged by it.”
FOS noted that volleyball “has the youngest audience and most female viewers of any sport” for Fox.
The Big Ten Network, which is majority-owned by Fox, garnered 591,000 viewers from a Wisconsin-Nebraska game last year.
The network will now air spring volleyball coverage for its first time.
Fox isn’t the only network airing more volleyball.
NBC Sports and ESPN have dabbled in the sports genre.
Last year, NBC Sports broadcasted four Big Ten women’s volleyball games for the first time, including three of the NBC broadcast network, and one exclusively on Peacock.
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ESPN’s platforms aired more than 2,600 matches in the 2024 season.
In December, ABC got the second-most-watched women’s college volleyball championship of all time, with 1.3 million viewers.
College volleyball has also been a live event spectacle, as Nebraska filled its football stadium with over 92,000 fans in August 2023 for a contest against Omaha.
“A lot of credit goes to the coaches and the cultures they’ve created, especially in the Big Ten,” Crocker said to the outlet.
It appears that if networks like Fox continue to showcase volleyball to a massive audience, either before or after an NFL game, the sport’s popularity and live TV ratings trajectory are sure to continue.
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