Here is all of them, up until October 30th http://thevoiceoftv.com/nielsen-tv-...nx/?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitterfeed And of course, as I expected, New York vs Los Angeles does NOT do well in tv ratings. Don't know why MLS executives seem to think so. The semi-final playoff games last weekend had lower viewership than the regular season average. The Houston vs Philadelphia game had more viewers. I can try to put a positive spin on this, but MLS ratings are pretty dreadful and inconsistent. One match up can get 300K+, and then that same match up later in the year, only gets half of that. Not sure why that is. Every other soccer property is exploding in tv ratings growth, but MLS is the one exception. Just seems a little odd and unexpected. Although part of the blame goes to ESPN for having zero promotion. Only good part is, MLS ratings are supposedly up 15% this year. But that is 15% above a very small number, so it could be within the margin of error.
I'm no expert, but the first idea to explains this that pops into my head is the observation MLS doesn't exist in a vaccuum. There could be something else on TV people would watch, the kickoff time, the day. It happens with attendance as well. MLS can draw the casual viewer on a good day when theres nothing else particular better other than reruns and no other compelling sport action. MLS is not yet at a point where any match is must see TV on a consistent basis. But it does matter whether it's on ESPN vs ESPN2. The highest ratings are the ones that where on the flagship and with the biggest markets. But even then NY vs Chi outdid Seattle vs Portland and LA vs Seattle on ESPN. Probably because it had the higher combined population of those matchups despite both teams being having mediocre seasons. I was at that game and it was one of many forgettable 1-1 homes ties I saw this year. Seattle vs Portland was a way way way better game. *shrug* I think our growth in attendance has inflated our sense of relevance and the tv ratings show how far we need to go.
If my calculations and that data are correct, average ratings are as follows: ESPN: 497,750 (4 games) ESPN2: 266,950 (20 games) Gala: 72,111 (18 games) FSC: 70,621 (29 games)
still can't understand how the ESPN2 playoff average is less than the ESPN2 regular season average. I almost want to think the ratings system is rigged. The LA vs NY playoff game had lower ratings than any other match-up between these two teams. I'm sure the NFL had some impact, but considering LA has no NFL team, I'm a bit surprised.
The Red Bulls-Galaxy game was on during the afternoon sunday. It seems like there is something else on during that time that would hurt MLS tv ratings but I can't quite put my finger on it.
Are you really? The NFL is a juggernaut in this country whether you have a team in your market or not. ESPN runs these games as a place holder because a test pattern just won't cut it anymore. How many people in LA play fantasy football? TV needs to get better but it certainly is a marathon and not a sprint. As a valuable property MLS needs to pull bigger numbers in the summer when there is little else but baseball.
To be fair though, that average is inflated because of games involving New York, LA and Seattle. I sorted the ESPN and ESPN 2 ratings high to low: ESPN Sun June 26 2:02 ESPN New York 1, Chicago 1 0.4 622 Tue Mar 15 9:30 ESPN Los Angeles 1, Seattle 0 0.4 604 Sun July 10 4:00 ESPN Seattle 3, Portland 2 0.3 467 Sun Oct 16 9:00 ESPN Chivas USA 0, Los Angeles 1 0.2 298 ESPN2 Wed July 27 8:30 ESPN2 2011 MLS All-Star Game 0.5 781 Thu June 23 10:21 ESPN2 New York 2, Seattle 4 0.3 410 Sat May 14 11:00 ESPN2 Portland 1, Seattle 1 0.2 328 Sat May 7 11:00 ESPN2 New York 1, Los Angeles 1 0.2 320 Thu Sep 29 9:00 ESPN2 D.C. United 2, Philadelphia 3 0.2 296 Mon July 4 10:37 ESPN2 Seattle 0, Los Angeles 0 0.2 289 Tue Oct 4 7:30 ESPN2 Los Angeles 0, New York 2 0.2 276 Sun Oct 30 5:08 ESPN2 East Semi Game 1: Houston 2, Philadelphia 1 0.2 256 Sun Oct 30 3:00 ESPN2 West Semi Game 1: Los Angeles 1, New York 0 0.2 253 Thu Apr 21 8:00 ESPN2 New York 4, D.C. United 0 0.2 236 Fri Oct 14 10:20 ESPN2 Real Salt Lake 0, Colorado 0 0.2 227 Sat Apr 9 7:00 ESPN2 New York 0, Philadelphia 3 0.2 227 Thu Apr 14 11:00 ESPN2 Chicago 2, Portland 4 0.2 214 Sat May 21 10:00 ESPN2 Los Angeles 1, Chivas USA 0 0.1 196 Thu Jun Sat July 2 10:30 ESPN2 New York 2, San Jose 2 0.1 193 Thu Aug 18 9:00 ESPN2 D.C. United 1, Chicago 1 0.1 193 Thu Oct 20 7:30 ESPN2 Philadelphia 0, New York 1 0.1 181 Thu June 9 10:00 ESPN2 Chicago 0, Sporting K.C. 0 0.1 163 Sun July 3 9:00 ESPN2 Houston 0, Colorado 0 0.1 156 Mon July 4 8:30 ESPN2 New England 3, Real Salt Lake 3 0.1 144 Only six regular season games had higher ratings than the two playoff games last weekend, and five of those six games involved Seattle, New York and LA. New York, LA and Seattle also posted the two biggest ratings on ESPN (by far). Yes, there were some disappointments too -- the October 20th game between Philly and NY looks to be one of them, as does the May 21 LA Chivas game, but generally NY, Seattle and LA have turned in some comparatively solid numbers (such as they are).
Pretty good jump from the average of about 53K on FSC last year. I'm sure some of that has to be chalked up to better production; the FSC games have been actually watchable this year.
I would not doubt we see even more Seattle away games spread across NBC and ESPN next year. I still can't get over the dichotomy of the fact that the WNBA can barely get any fans to attend its games (7800 average this year) and yet the same amount of people watch their games on ESPN2 as MLS games.... By the way, if no one has said it yet,thanks to the OP for posting this info. This is fantastic, complete data. Wish we had one of these complete sets for every season.
Whatever, doesn't matter. TV ratings are the 4th or 5th thing down the list when networks look at buying sports properties. There are quite a few factors that are more influential.
That's the difference between "interest in something" and "interest in something to the point of spending real time/money on it" ...
Perhaps MLS's high attendance is hurting it's tv viewership ever so slightly. Lets say 300K watched the Seattle game on TV, and 39K actually attended the game in person. Let's also pretend WNBA averaged 300K viewers. For WNBA, it's 300K + 8K (for those in attendance) for a total of 308K. Seattle is 300K plus the 39K in attendance which brings it to a total of 339K. So MLS's tv viewership would be a good 15-20% higher on average if people simply didn't show up to the games. This says two things, MLS has really good attendance. But it also says it's tv viewership is so small that the attendance actually makes up for 20% of the people nationwide actually watching the game. Also, the WNBA would completely fall apart if it wasn't for the NBA subsidizing it. The MLS can survive on its own. Even the WPS has a better chance of surviving on it's own. IMO, the WNBA is an artificial product. It has literally been forced down our throats by the NBA. If the NBA didn't do this, the WNBA would cease to exist. Why? Because basketball is not really a popular sport for women. I'm not trying to be sexist, but that is the reality. If MLS was a powerful league with the finances of the NBA, I guarantee that the WMLS would be a lot more successful than the WNBA because more women play soccer. The good news is, MLS has the potential to get big ratings, and it will.........eventually. The WNBA will never get bigger than it currently is. It averages 270K viewers right now. That's exactly what it will average 10 years from now.
Nelison boxes are flawed on every cable box or satilite ... How is a flawed system be so accurate?......I want to know. The data can't be this flowed , something is wrong somewhere.
Oh I can walk you through how it is very flawed - but others may kill me. Suffice it to say they don't have enough boxes (statistically insignificant sample set) , nor are the boxes actually given randomly (true sense of random). Plus they do not accuratly account for Over the air, appropriatly report DVR recordings, and they still cannnot do group viewing number. They come to a very specific number simply as an output of their math formula.
Don Garber would happily trade the life of every one of his front office members for the ratings womens college basketball gets, especially come tourney time. Never confuse the lack of popularity of the WNBA with the pretty decent popularity of womens college hoop.
Bluto: What? Over? Did you say "over"? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no! Otter: [to Boon] Germans? Boon: Forget it, he's rolling.
1.) Perceived popularity of the sport (average attendance, survey results) which increases the stature of the network 2.) Leverage. To force more money out of cable companies 3.) The property's ability to increase the distribution of the network (people subscribe to cable/ESPN JUST for soccer) 4.) "Advertiseability" of the property. What kind of ads can be run during the game? Pre-game show viewership There are other, more important, factors at work here than ratings. The NHL, which draws twice the average viewership of MLS, has 10 times the TV revenue. The reason? Hockey is perceived as more popular, it gives NBC more leverage when it comes to negations, it increases the distribution of the network, and it's quite easy to advertise during games.