MLS TV Ratings

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by Revolt, Mar 12, 2012.

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  1. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    While this is 100% true, you do need to peal the onion a bit and recognize that MLS fans likely did not make up a majority of the people who watched Fox Soccer Channel. Fox Soccer Channel has for years pretty much lived on the EPL while almost everything else in its portfolio was stuck in the 50-70k range of viewers.

    You also need to recognize that not every soccer fan or MLS fan spent the extra money to get FSC as it is typically in a separate sports tier. I know I did not get the channel for years.

    So the move to the greater availability NBCSN also has a chance to pick up some soccer/MLS fans that would normally have watched the games but did not because they did not get FSC.

    It really works both ways, although in what % breakdown we will never know.
     
  2. Stan Collins

    Stan Collins Member+

    Feb 26, 1999
    Silver Spring, MD
    I can't argue that point. Of course, you can often shape that audience. FSC, especially early on, came off as a channel for, by, and of the expats. As it evolved it seemed to open up a bit to MLS and to being an 'American' soccer channel, but it came off as a bit of too little, too late for MLS fans.

    What I think MLS fans were hoping for out of NBCSN was a channel that combined ESPN's reach with FSC's 'we care about the sport', with an accent on MLS. I think for the most part, they have delivered. Some of the increase in viewership must be down to pure availability (witness the difference between ESPN and FSC ratings), but I think it's fair to guess that some of it is down to that presentation. (There are little things, like that I think in general NBCSN has been savvier about which games to pick. They've been a bit less Beckocentric, and have smartly put the focus a little bit more upon teams and upon fanbases.)

    Some of that 'presentation', in turn, is down to MLS bringing a more polished product. When you can go to Houston or Kansas City and present a packed house with large and loud supporters sections, that's something MLS didn't have to offer in 2004.

    It's definitely nice that MLS can reap some benefit from Olympic exposure. One does hope that some people will remember that the channel exists (one of the most common laments early in the season was people thinking the matches were on NBC, not realizing that NBC Sports Net even existed), what it shows, and what number it is in their lineup.
     
  3. Justin O

    Justin O Member+

    Seattle Sounders
    United States
    Nov 30, 1998
    on the run from the covid
    Club:
    Seattle
    Well, at least from glancing at this thread from time to time, I haven't really gotten the impression that people are thinking that so much.
     
  4. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Does anyone remember if FSC had a 2.5 hour window for games last season?

    If FSC was just a 2 hour window, this makes the NBCSN numbers even nicer because (for the most part) the ratings are based on the 2.5 hour window. We don't have a lot of data on the 2 hour window for NBCSN, but what little we have shows the 2 hour window is about 15% higher than the 2.5 hour window.
     
  5. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Over a decade ago (holy smokes), I started to create attendance threads on Big Soccer to track MLS Attendance.

    *We first focused on average attendance
    *Then we quickly realized how much the one off games were affecting the average so we started to track median
    *Then, completely arbtrarily, we came up with the idea of tracking <10k and >20k numbers, the thought being we would love to see the league never go under 10k and that 20k was a very attractive number to achieve.
    *This data eventually morphed into the AAQ
    *Then Ed took over the thread the last couple of years and refined the AAQ to be the AAAQ.

    I was thinking how similar the NBCSN ratings are today to when we first started to track attendance all those years ago.

    It would be great to see the league never get below 100k viewers and anything over 200k is going to be very attractive (similar to the 10k/20k numbers from attendance).

    Also, depending on how the numbers work out at the end of the season, I might start adding a median, in case the Olympic time numbers end up being slight outliers.

    While we don't have anywhere near the amount of samples we have for attendance, now that we actually can get the data weekly, this thread in the coming years is going to have a similar affect that the attendance thread has had over the past decade.
     
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  6. crookeddy

    crookeddy Member+

    Apr 27, 2004
    It's going to attract trolls and weirdos?
     
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  7. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    If it follows the same trajectory it will :)

    "Looks like more on tv" doesn't have the same ring to it in a ratings thread :)
     
  8. El Duderino

    El Duderino Member

    Nov 29, 2006
    I'm pretty sure the ratings were for a 2 hour window. At least how it showed up on my guide was as a half hour pregame show, the two hour match window, then another 30 minute postgame show.
     
  9. crookeddy

    crookeddy Member+

    Apr 27, 2004
    It'll turn into "I am sure the ratings were higher because two of my friends watched for at least 30 seconds".
     
  10. stingbee30

    stingbee30 Member

    Mar 16, 2006
    Nope...GolTV is too small to pay for being counted....I think their reach is around 10 million (someone correct me if I'm wrong...)...
     
  11. Twix1138

    Twix1138 Member

    Jul 9, 2010
    Wouldn't be surprised if the NBCSN mls game outdraws the LA/Seattle game on ESPN2.

    I mean, is anyone watching ESPN2 when the Olympics are on?
     
  12. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
  13. tab5g

    tab5g Member+

    May 17, 2002
    From a business perspective for MLS/SUM, the benefit of the NBC deal (relative to what FOX had always offered) will start to show up in other (immediate) ways beyond just the penetration of (# of households reached by the somewhat to extreme "niche") cable/satellite channels.

    NBC (the free OTA broadcast "mothership") is going to air 3 MLS league games this fall. FOX never did that for the league. The deal with NBC makes the league (at least seem) more "major" than it's been in a long time, in terms of getting regular season league games back on English language national broadcast television (if that is an important distinction anymore).

    Those additional (potential) eyeballs will be significant for the league. (And yes those 3 games this fall are on Saturday afternoons up against tons of NCAA football coverage on other networks.)
     
  14. ceezmad

    ceezmad Member+

    Mar 4, 2010
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Red Stars
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Well those number will be compared to what ABC used to get back when they showed MLS.

    Anyone remember those rattings?
     
  15. MobileSoccerFan

    May 14, 2012
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Sorry if this has been discussed, but does ticket scarcity drive better ratings? (with the thinking that the difference in people who were able to purchase tickets and those who can't will probably watch the game on TV). I assume this probably works better (and easier to track) for local broadcasts,but just curious if an answer could surface ITT.
     
  16. evilmonkeycmand

    Jun 29, 2011
    North Carolina
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just realized that those are weekends when Notre Dame isn't hosting a home game (two road games, and a neutral-site night game in Chicago).

    Edit: Relevant because Notre Dame is NBC's only college football product.
     
  17. FuzzyForeigner

    Oct 29, 2003
    WA
    Club:
    Seattle
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    what was SSFC-LAG ratings?
     
  18. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    The ratings are released on Tuesday. You don't need to request them. Whom ever sees them first posts them and then we update the summary.
     
  19. Heist

    Heist Member+

    Jun 15, 2001
    Virginia
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This could be cool for the league. At least they are good rivalry games. Too bad Philly and Portland will be out of playoff contention by then most likely. Chicago, NY, and Seattle should all be up for those games though. All games showcase great MLS stadiums and hopefully NY will be close to sold out and the other two surely will.
    Can they lead in with the Olympics?! :)
     
  20. Mateofelipe

    Mateofelipe Member+

    Mar 10, 2001
    Spokane, WA
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I sensed more eyeballs on my when I was in the stadium.
     
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  21. IndyMac

    IndyMac Member

    Nov 2, 2008
    Evansville, Indiana
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I think that's the point though, they want to catch people who are flipping through channels to see what all games are on. This was the logic for NBC and the NHL Winter Classic on New Year's Day, to catch people flipping through all the college football games and instead they end up stopping on ice hockey being played in a baseball stadium.
     
  22. Twix1138

    Twix1138 Member

    Jul 9, 2010
    Houston vs New York (NBCSN)

    148K
     
  23. stingbee30

    stingbee30 Member

    Mar 16, 2006
    You beat me to the punch line...But, it is for the 2.5 hour window....Above average ratings, but failed to meet our targeted projections...The match-window probably pulled something like 160k-170K viewers.

    We will see what Sunday brings...
     
  24. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    not bad. It is the best of the three Friday night numbers so far on NBCSN.

    I will hold posting the summary until we get the Sunday night number.
     
  25. RfrancisR

    RfrancisR Member+

    Aug 7, 2006
    New Orleans Diaspora
    Well, 148k is very good especially in light of the fact that it was up against the Women's All Around finals in gymnastics if I recall correctly.
     

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