MLS TV Ratings

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

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  1. LongDuckDong

    LongDuckDong Member+

    Jan 26, 2011
    Club:
    FC Schalke 04
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    As far as ratings go

    NFL >>>>> NBA >> MLB >> NHL > MLS
     
  2. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    It should be noted that this is national ratings only.

    MLB's real strength is in their local ratings and subsequent local tv money. It seperates them greatly from the NBA or NHL.
     
    Kejsare and blacksun repped this.
  3. MobileSoccerFan

    May 14, 2012
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Luckily the potential for greater TV ratings is the reverse.
     
  4. MobileSoccerFan

    May 14, 2012
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Indeed. One of the reasons the Dodgers sold for +$2B.
     
  5. blockski

    blockski Member

    Feb 13, 2009
    Club:
    DC United
    Not only that, but most MLB national TV broadcasts are blacked out in the local markets so that the local broadcasts get those viewers.

    The flip side is that local markets are often not allowed to schedule games at the same time as a 'game of the week' national broadcast, so that the national broadcast is the only baseball game on TV at that time.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_blackout_policy
     
    MLSFan123 repped this.
  6. LongDuckDong

    LongDuckDong Member+

    Jan 26, 2011
    Club:
    FC Schalke 04
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No. I'm pretty sure the regional ratings follow the same hierarchy.

    The reason MLB teams get such huge TV money is because MLB teams play 162 games a season. The NBA teams only plays 66.

    MLS ratings could very well surpass MLB ratings over the next decade, especially in the 18-49 demographic, but MLB teams will still get 5 times the money in their regional TV contracts because they play 5 times more games.
     
  7. kenntomasch

    kenntomasch Member+

    Sep 2, 1999
    Out West
    Club:
    FC Tampa Bay Rowdies
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This year, anyway.

    The second part of that is very true.

    I'm just not seeing how after decades of men's outdoor league soccer in this country getting poor-to-ehh ratings, we're going to pass baseball by 2022. But that's just me.
     
  8. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I do not believe this is true. I have been following this for a long long time and the local MLB ratings especially in the bigger cities dominate the NBA ratings. Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Philly, etc etc all do significantly better than the NBA does locally.

    It is the main reason that MLB is considered the most regional of the three big sports leagues. They don't draw well nationally (relatively) but do draw well (especially in the big cities) locally.

    And yes, of course the longer season helps the local contracts but if you look at the ENORMOUS size difference between the NBA and MLB local TV contracts you will see it is significantly more than just having twice the games to show.

    Side note: NBA teams play 82 games a year, not 66. You are confusing a strike shortened year with normal length of season.
     
  9. chudbeagle

    chudbeagle Member

    Jun 10, 2010
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    There is no way in hell MLS will even catch a sneeze of MLB ratings ever. Locally here in Philly the Phils slaughter competition aside from the Eagles who only play 16 games.

    Here's a note of reality from Forbes:
    The Phillies led MLB in local television ratings in 2011, averaging a 9.7 on Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia. Ratings have increased for nine consecutive seasons.

    And another:
    Overnight rating for Portland-Seattle on ESPN was 0.6, best regular-season overnight on ESPN/ESPN2 since 2001.
     
    MLSFan123 repped this.
  10. sitruc

    sitruc Member+

    Jul 25, 2006
    Virginia
    I can't make any sense of it either especially since DC-NY has been the highest rated espn2 and NBCSN games this season.
     
  11. MobileSoccerFan

    May 14, 2012
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Maybe that's the problem with MLS' ratings: there is no sense, no pattern, no specific target.
     
  12. LongDuckDong

    LongDuckDong Member+

    Jan 26, 2011
    Club:
    FC Schalke 04
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    This is definitely not the case. In Boston, the Celtics average around 5.0, and Red Sox average 5.0-6.0. From what I can tell, on average the ratings are about the same. NBA however dominates in the 18-49 demographics.

    The only reason MLB gets more money is the number of games. If the NBA had a 160+ game season, I guarantee they would make more than MLB (because of the 18-49 demo).

    Even if MLS doesn't surpass MLB in overall ratings, MLS will more likely than not surpass MLB in the 18-49 demographic this decade. We're really close as it is. MLB's 18-49 is atrocious.
     
  13. LongDuckDong

    LongDuckDong Member+

    Jan 26, 2011
    Club:
    FC Schalke 04
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Nope. The #1 problem with MLS isn't the ratings, it's not the demographics. It's commercials

    The fact that you can't show ads is a HUGE issue. ESPN/NBC need to build an audience for pre/post game shows, or else MLS is doomed to practically no TV money for the foreseeable future.
     
  14. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    You are cherry picking and not looking over a span of years for an average.

    The Celtics all time high, for one season was a 4.7. It's previous all time high before that was only a 3.5 in the 2008 season.

    The Celtics dropped almost 30% in the ratings this season from that one time high of a 4.7.

    http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/2011/02/celtics-enjoying-best-season-ever-on-csnne
    http://www.celticsblog.com/2012/5/2...n-ratings-increase-celtics-local-ratings-drop

    If you look over say a seven year period to weed out the one time spikes, you are going to see the Red Sox beat easily the Celtics in local ratings.

    The Red Sox lowest ratings between 2004 and 2010 was a 6.5.
    http://espn.go.com/blog/boston/red-sox/tag/_/name/tv-ratings

    The lowest Red Sox rating beats the highest Cetic rating. It is not even close if you look over the span of time and don't cherry pick.
     
    blacksun repped this.
  15. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Also, the Red Sox averaged a 7.9 in 2011. Not even their highest average in the past 8 or so years.
    http://articles.boston.com/2011-10-19/sports/30298459_1_nielsen-viewership-numbers-households

    Only two NBA teams averaged over a 5 locally in 2011(compared to 6 MLB teams that averaged over a 6 locally. And those two NBA teams do not have a MLB team in town.
    http://m.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2011/04/18/Media/NBA-RSN-ratings.aspx?
     
    ceezmad repped this.
  16. Lithium858

    Lithium858 Member

    Aug 11, 2002
    Baton Rouge
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah and the Padres will be sold for around $800M because of their new TV contract too lol
     
  17. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    After all these years of watching MLS ratings really make no head way, you would think people would stop with these fantastic type predictions. Maybe the great WC ratings and the solid Euro ratings make people hope for MLS.

    Personally I would wait until MLS showed some consistent growth over a multi year period to make such strong predictions.
     
  18. Oobers

    Oobers Member+

    Oct 17, 2011
    Boise
    Club:
    Sporting Kansas City
    It would be nice if MLS tossed up a background ad on their website for SKC/Chicago like they did with NY/DC. Oh well...
     
  19. HailtotheKing

    HailtotheKing Member+

    San Antonio FC
    United States
    Dec 1, 2008
    TEXAS
    Club:
    San Antonio Scorpions FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    They're too busy pimping LA/SJ
     
  20. MobileSoccerFan

    May 14, 2012
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    It's been noted in the last few posts, but games that have had regional and national promotion have done better.
     
  21. LongDuckDong

    LongDuckDong Member+

    Jan 26, 2011
    Club:
    FC Schalke 04
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Haven't ratings gone up consistently the last 4 years in a row, including this year?
     
  22. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

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

    May 14, 2012
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Up about 12% YTD on all network average this year alone,too. That's pretty good.
     
  24. MLSFan123

    MLSFan123 Member+

    Mar 21, 2011
    Boston Area
    Club:
    New England Revolution
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Just like it is a mistake to compare attendance from the middle of the season to the end of the season, it is also problematic to compare completed seasons of ratings with partial seasons.

    The partial season is too sensative to a single spike, like the Port Sea game which because of the small amount of samples in skewing the data.

    Hopefully the ESPN/ESPN2 numbers can stay up by the end of the year and reverse the trend of the previous seasons.

    Comparing NBCSN to FSC is difficult to make work because of the huge disparity in households. Best to wait until we can compare NBCSN to NBCSN next year.
     
  25. MobileSoccerFan

    May 14, 2012
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    That's all fair.

    Do you have the ESPN numbers pre-2011 by the way?
     

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