SOCCER TV RATINGS on Weekly Basis..(MLS, EPL, UEFA)

New York getting terrible tv ratings as usual...

I think they set a record this time. If NY can barely crack 300K for a playoff match, then you can't expect much.

 

The TV ratings confirm what I have been saying for the past 10 years:

The U.S. TV market for soccer is not that different from the TV market for soccer in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, etc.

Viewers who want to watch soccer on TV in these markets prefer the global brand name clubs in the English Premier League over the local brands.

Manchester United is way ahead of the curve, as it is now going after Mexico and the U.S. Hispanic markets after conquering the East and Southeast Asian markets.

 

Thanks Stingbee.


Does your source have the most recent NBCSN game? We only got a partial demographic rating in the MLS forum.

 

It (the small audience size) also had to do (in part) with the fact that the Sunday afternoon 3/25 MLS game on ESPN (as well as part of the Friday night 3/23 NBCSN MLS game) was up against March Madness NCAA Basketball games on CBS in the same timeslot(s).

Ratings are important data points. (Although, the data in this thread is actually the projected average audience size from the "ratings" percentage as estimated by Nielsen.) But all data points need context and understanding. Top-line household ratings and total persons average audience size data are important and indicative. But additionally, demographic and other audience data and competitive data-sets are not always available for public consumption and/or in a thread like this.

 

I have been saying the following for the past 18 months as well:

MLS will get a "destination" time slot from NBC Sports Network, but NOT from the ESPN Networks, especially after 2014.

MLS matches on the ESPN Networks since 2009 have been scheduled at the convenience of ESPN, Inc., not at the convenience of MLS, after MLS failed to deliver anywhere close to ESPN, Inc.'s expectations for growth.

With ESPN, Inc. losing the FIFA properties (and its associated requirement to carry MLS) after 2014, your logic should point toward NBC Sports Network as the new "Tier 1" outlet for MLS in 2015.

2012-2014: ESPN, Inc. - Tier 1, Galavision - Tier 1S Spanish, NBC Sports Network - Tier 2, Direct Kick/MLSlive.tv - Tier 3

2015 and beyond - NBC Sports Network - Tier 1 English, mun2 - Tier 1 Spanish, either FOX Soccer/FOX Deportes or ESPN2/ESPN Deportes - Tier 2, MLS Network - Tier 3, Direct Kick/MLSlive.tv - Tier 4

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NBC Sports Network has a boss in Jonathan Miller who believes in going after young audiences with non-traditional sports events.

(Miller's boss Mark Lazarus is also very aggressive, as he was the one who took a chance on WUSA in 2001 before bailing out at the end of the season after seeing Comcast bail out and the $100 million in deficits accumulated by WUSA before the first ball was even kicked.)

One of Miller's "unconventional" bets for NBC Sports before MLS was the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which ended its 7-year run in 2011 after the U.S. Department of Justice booted out the biggest unlicensed real money online poker rooms from the U.S. market.

The managerial team at NBC Sports Network (including producer Pierre Moussa) that was in charge of the 2011 National Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC Sports is now in charge of MLS on NBC Sports Network.

(The production company that produced Heads-Up poker for NBC now produces the World Series of Poker and World Series of Poker Europe for ESPN, Inc., as well as the World Series of Poker Circuit Events for NBC Sports Network. )

 

I don't think that MLS is going to reach anywhere near their potential in tv ratings until ESPN does two easy things for them.

1. Soccer show similar to baseball tonight
2. Show highlights and talk about stories on sportscenter other than top 10 plays.

If espn did that, we would see ratings sky rocket.

 

Thank you!

I saw the following on the MLS forum and likely misread it that it was 106k viewers in just the MEN 18-49 bracket but from your post it sounds like that was the entire number.


Ratings for Houston v. Seattle per @tvsportsratings on twitter:
@sounderatheart .10 Men 18-49. 106k viewers

 

which makes it absolute lunacy that MLS wants to put another team in NY

 

But that's NOT ESPN's job.

ESPN's job is to exploit MLS for a profit, not to build a TV audience for MLS.

Building a TV audience for MLS is the job of Don Garber and associates.


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The best thing that has happened to MLS is for FOX to knock ESPN out of the FIFA World Cups after 2014.

That move has forced MLS to rethink its media strategy in the U.S.

Whether that rethinking will include moving "Tier 1" to NBC Sports Network and mun2, or launching MLS Network (in conjunction with Comcast and possibly Time Warner Cable) for "Tier 3" telecasts, remains to be seen. We will know in less than 30 months.

 

When you think that MLS's first game this year on ESPN2 this year drew 337k viewers, the idea that the EPL is some how monstrously more popular on tv is kind of silly.

 

how are those mutually exclusive?

i.e., would (ESPN) helping to build a TV audience for MLS also (or additionally) better allow ESPN to do its job of exploiting MLS for a profit?

"and associates" includes (or should include) the group of MLS/SUM's broadcast partners, such as ESPN, does (or should) it not?

 

ESPN's job is to make money. If they happen to build an MLS audience in the process or consider it a pre-requisite - all the better for MLS. But ESPN is not going to spend money on an ideal that won't make them money. I think that's the point.

 

But how has the pendulum swung towards MLS? The World Cup rights award to Fox/Telemundo has blown a hole in the theory that you need MLS to win the World Cup - which is the crown jewel of Soccer TV rights. If anything, MLS is in a worse position.

The idea, though, that a sports league would trade rights fees for a cut in the channel esp if that channel has someone like ESPN, Fox, or the cable companies behind it (or both in the case of Comcast/NBC) is very interesting. I suppose then I could see an MLS TV channel that gets "the push" and ends up adding a bunch of syndicated content and infomercials.

But who knows ...

 

Chivas vs Club America will be next Sunday at 7pm ET/4pm PT on Telemundo.

I expect the lowest household rating EVER for a superclasico in the U.S. since the Spanish-language networks switched to the Nielsen Television Index (NTI) in 2006.

(My prediction: 0.8% household rating, down from 1.9% in 2007.)

https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1926440

In 2011, neither of the two superclasicos were able to crack 1.0%, with both coming in at 0.9%. The telecast on Univision in October actually drew WORSE than the one on Telemundo in April.

Heck, the superclasicos were NOT even the highest-rated MEXICAN League matches on U.S. television in 2011. Toluca-Santos on December 11, 2011 drew more viewers.

The global brands, particularly the big 3 (Manchester United, Barcelona, and Real Madrid,) have begun taking market share in the U.S. Hispanic market from the Mexican League.

The quality of Chivas and Club America have both slipped in recent years. Chivas in particular have been brutally bad in 2012 (losing to relegation-threatened Estudiantes Tecos 1-0 in a local derby last week was the latest stinker.)

 

Please stop repenting your self you posted that like last week. This is getting old now I am starting to just not bother reading your posts.