MLS 2013 TV Ratings

There's something to be said for missing content suddenly being available again. Things could/should cool down for the NHL as the season wears on, but a more-compact season could help (and boost) their avg viewership numbers.

 

That's great for NBC, they were DYING without the NHL.

 

They do need to get something other than NHL, Friday Night Hockey (NCAA), and CAA basketball for the winter months. MLS, IndyCar, and Formula 1 are good properties as well, and I like their CAA deal for football and basketball, but they do need something like the Catholic 7. It will be very interesting to what happens with the next round of TV deals now that NBC, Fox and CBS are all developing their sports networks to combat ESPN.

 

Just having Georgetown-Villanova matchups would do wonders. What's more those Catholic 7 schools have very strong in followings major markets even amongst the ones that do NOTHING on the court like Depaul (they love em in Chicago, which I don't get when you have Illinois but whatever).

I'd say they need the catholic 7 and maybe like one more mainstream American property for the fall and winter to really get settled and build an audience, what could they concievably get is beyond me though.

The way it;s shaping up FOX will be the strongest of Mothership alternatives, although NBC could turn into something like it's over the air network counterpart. A sports network of more niche/cult programming that is still popular enough to be very lucrative to advertisers (like it's Thursday night comedy lineup).

 

I think they need to strengthen their football offerings. CAA and Ivy League are fun to watch, but they won't bring big enough ratings. The only major property they have on that front is Notre Dame. If I'm NBC/NBCSN, I go all in on the first one of the SEC/Big 12/Pac 12 that becomes available. I almost forgot that they add EPL next year as well. One major college football property would set them up nicely and they can use that to cross promote their other programming like they did with Notre Dame this year.

 

Good eye, but those college football contracts aren't going to be up for a while. Even the modest ACC is locked in on ESPN until 20-twentysomething! FOX is going to pimp the hell out of Big XII/Pac-12 matchups and SEC on CBS is an institution.

Are there any big fall Nascar contests?

 

Don't know. I just can't get into 43 identical cars turning left for 3-5 hours.

Yeah, those football deals just got put in place. If the Big East wasn't completely falling apart that would be one way to go, but really it's just a glorified Conference USA at this point. With Boise and San Diego State staying in the Mountain West, that may be one worth looking at. I'd also try to snag the FCS college championships and televise every playoff game.

NBCSN just needs that one thing to solidify winter months in case the NHL decides to go into another lockout 8 years from now.

 

What, the Tour Down Under/Tour of Qatar/Tour of Oman aren't enough?

 

NHL and NBC happy with this. Granted it was Boston and NY and arguably the 2 best teams in the East. But it helps. And there were at my count 4 MLS ads.

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2013/1/...c-sports-network-sets-all-time-ratings-record

The Bruins-Rangers game, which went to overtime and was overall a pretty great game,drew 956,000 viewers, the best-ever for NBC Sports Network, VERSUS, or OLN for a regular season game. The previous record was set on opening night of the 2011-12 season, when Flyers-Bruins drew 874,000 viewers on Oct. 6.
NBC Sports just tweeted out that the game was the most-watched on cable in 13 years. The peak audience between 8:45-9 p.m. ET was 1.09 million. What is wrong with you, people who tuned out of that game before the end?

 

NBC should try to extend their tennis coverage so that they can put most of their content on NBCSN when NBC isn't available. Basketball is a good option for NBCSN too (both college and NBA.) They bid for MLB this year but wasn't aggressive/interested enough to shell out the money that FOX/ESPN/TBS spent to retain the rights.

My guess is that in the future we can see more college sports on TV with NBCSN and eventually FS1 so they will need more live content to draw ratings. It's possible that both NBCSN and FS1 will show more stuff like college hockey and tier 2 football/baseketball conferences like MW or Big West until the bigger conferences/leagues become available later on down the road.

I found this pretty interesting:

 

That's not fair. They also occasionally crash.

------RM

 

Nobody gives the NASCAR road races or non-oval tracks any credit...

 

'Cuz true good-ol-boy NASCAR fans hate them. Go to a NASCAR board and you'll find plenty of fans who think the current two road courses are two too many. They prefer their tracks round, tight, and dangerous. (Much like they prefer their-- maybe I shouldn't go there.)

------RM

 

I wonder how much they paid.

Perhaps the FMF should start thinking about selling language rights separate.

 

I don't know if y'all saw that ESPN soccer promotion commercial but it left out the MLS. Seems like writing on the wall really since the content they featured rolls into 2014, the same time as the new contract. Good riddance IYAM.

 

Exactly where do you think MLS will get even close to the exposure that ESPN offered them?

 

NBC seems open and willing. Not only that, they offer a better product that is better for the league. ESPN doesn't pay any more and treats MLS like Sunday afternoon pool. Just because it's the evil empire and has more subscribers doesn't mean the league has to sell it's soul to the devil.

 

Ben Berger (@footiebusiness)
1/29/13, 8:30 PM
Another note from the Nielsen insert to SBJ: Despite flat overall ratings, Asian viewership of MLS Cup up 267% over three years

 

ESPN reaches 100 million homes. NBCSN is not too far away with 75 million and they put games on the flagship NBC station. Depending on what Fox does with the rebranding of Fox Sports 1 (Speed) that gives another 77 million as an optional outlet. ESPN has a lead on them, but both networks are making a major push to compete and will likely be able to get into more households pretty quickly if they get enough content to justify it. MLS has far more options the next time around than they did just a few years ago.

 

True but such low ratings would preclude heavy bidding.

 

usually but with this sport media war going on these stations want the greatest amount of programming possible.

 

Any news on the viewership for yesterday's three Desert Friendlies?
http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2013/january/more-people-watched-the-pro-bowl-than.html

 

The Portland match peaked at about 2K people on youtube when I was watching.