To be honest, ESPN couldn't have picked a worse game to air. Both teams aren't exactly great, and no fan atmosphere.
Here is what I get from March to end of July 48 Games 6,918 total rating = 144.1K average rating. I only included Regular season games, not friendly or the all star. Any idea where I can find the 2010 and 2009 numbers?
ok, This is what I have, please help me fill in the gaps. 2006 ESPN I do not think I got the right numbers. ESPN2 21 games for 263K average FSC n/A Spanish ???????????? 2007 ESPN I do not think I got the right numbers. ESPN2 24 games Avg. 289 FSC N/A Spanish 24 games Avg 282 2008 ESPN ?????????? ESPN2 26 - 253K FSC 4 - 30K Spanish 26 - 254K 2009 ESPN ??????????????? ESPN2 24 - 284K FSC 30 or 32 - 53K Spanish 24 - 229K 2010 ESPN 12% less than 2009 ESPN2 25 - 249K FSC 32 I think - 53K-55K (flat as in 2009) Spanish 24 to 26 - ???????? 2011 ESPN After 4 games - 471.5 K ESPN2 After 13 games - 227.1K FSC After 18 games - 71.1K Spanish After 14 games - 70.8K So I have all ESPN2 since 2006. All FSC since 2008 Spanish missing 2008 and 2010. I do not really have good ESPN numbers, I have 2011 so far (4 Regular season games). Also missing all Canada TV ratings. So who can help me out?
If you want MLS to be more popular, you want to advertise the good parts of the league. Not two boring/mediocre teams going at it. If the less known teams want to be on tv more, they either have to improve, or let the bigger teams be on tv which will increase the popularity of the league, which will then translate to more air time for the smaller teams. Airing Seattle games for example, not only benefits Seattle, it benefits MLS. Which in turn benefits other teams down the road. I think it's pretty clear that ESPN has no interest in growing the MLS or even talking about it. They are only airing the bare minimum to be able to contend for WC rights. Now that football has started, you won't see another MLS game for at least a month. That's why they aired so many in the past few weeks, because they will air much less during football season.
Circle logic, Catch-22, whatever you want to call it... it's in this post. I've seen you in several threads regarding ratings, but don't recall seeing posts where you discuss matches or history. Do you actually closely follow any teams or leagues?
Seattle invented benefitting MLS. If you are talking about best looking atmosphere on tv, I'd have to go with Portland, although back in the day, DC was pretty good with those far side stands bumping. You can bet if DC got a little bit better and got near 20k per game, it'd be awesome despite the overall crappyness of RFK. As far as I know though, ESPN rarely switches games to cover although it does sometimes happen I think.
This is really hard to believe, but the Portland v Vancouver game on FSC got a 0.0 and 71000 P2+ (source: Son of the Bronx).
It looks like our ESPN2 average is decreasing over the last couple years. Do you know how many games were on ESPN in 2009 or 2010? Even if we don't have ratings for them, if it was only 1 or 2 games then it seems that despite down numbers on ESPN2 our overall ESPN average may still be up due to more ESPN games. (Of course, I don't know that ESPN would actually care about an apples-to-oranges across-all-ESPN-networks average - maybe this is just my own peculiar trying-to-find-the-positive-in-the-numbers thing.)
ESPN 2009 and 2010 looks like only 1 game per year. There were none in 2008 as far as I can tell (regular season). MLS Regular season games on ESPN: Zero in 2008; at least I did not see any on the list, please correct me if I am wrong. http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=505994&cc=5901 "One regular season game, Seattle at Chicago on July 25, will be broadcast on ESPN" for 2009 http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=613666&sec=mls&cc=5901 2010; 1 game http://www.livesoccertv.com/news/642/espn-s-2010-major-league-soccer-schedule/ 2006 ESPN I do not think I got the right numbers. ESPN2 21 games for 263K average FSC n/A Spanish ???????????? 2007 ESPN I do not think I got the right numbers. ESPN2 24 games Avg. 289 FSC N/A Spanish 24 games Avg 282 2008 ESPN No games for the regular season. ESPN2 26 - 253K FSC 4 - 30K Spanish 26 - 254K 2009 ESPN 1 game - ???????????? ESPN2 24 - 284K FSC 30 or 32 - 53K Spanish 24 - 229K 2010 ESPN 12% less than 2009 and only 1 game ESPN2 25 - 249K FSC 32 I think - 53K-55K (flat as in 2009) Spanish 24 to 26 - ???????? 2011 ESPN After 4 games - 471.5 K ESPN2 After 13 games - 227.1K FSC After 18 games - 71.1K Spanish After 14 games - 70.8K So I have all ESPN2 since 2006. All FSC since 2008 Spanish missing 2008 and 2010. I do not really have good ESPN numbers, I have 2011 so far (4 Regular season games). Also I do not have any ratings for ESPN Deportes, we could add those to the Spanish TV section or to ESPN2. Also missing all Canada TV ratings. Rep for anyone that can provide me with a link to the ESPN ratings for the Chicago - Seattle game on ESPN on July 25th 2009.
Did the Son of the Bronx site get shut down? It was a decent source for ratings but I can't access it any more.
2006 ESPN I do not think I got the right numbers. ESPN2 21 games for 263K average FSC n/A Spanish n/a Univision deal started in 2007 2007 ESPN I do not think I got the right numbers. ESPN2 24 games Avg. 289 FSC N/A Spanish 24 games Avg 282 2008 ESPN No games for the regular season. ESPN2 26 - 253K FSC 4 - 30K Spanish 26 - 254K 2009 ESPN 1 game - ???????????? ESPN2 24 - 284K FSC 30 or 32 - 53K Spanish 24 - 229K 2010 ESPN 12% less than 2009 and only 1 game ESPN2 25 - 249K FSC 32 I think - 53K-55K (flat as in 2009) Spanish 24 to 26 - ???????? 2011 ESPN After 4 games - 471.5 K ESPN2 After 13 games - 227.1K FSC After 18 games - 71.1K Spanish After 14 games - 70.8K So I have all ESPN2 since 2006. All FSC since 2008 Missing Spanish (Univision/Telefutura) 2010. Also missing ESPN ratings for the Chicago - Seattle game on ESPN on July 25th 2009.
It looks like MLS could be setting up a leave from ESPN and going to NBC Sports who look like they will actually try to grow the league and there investment. I called that at least 2 years ago, maybe 3. Hard to believe it took this long. Now that Versus is NBC Sports. Look for it to go up in HH next year into the 80-90 million range as well. And lots of promos on NHL hockey.
It is very likely MLS will simply go into the package of whom ever wins the World Cup rights in 2014. Garber stated pretty clearly that they would love to do an exclusive deal with one company. COMCAST may have the most attractive package to MLS fans but the question will be whether they can win the WC rights. They have a key component in Telemundo that gives them the exciting possibility of grabbing both the English and Spanish world cup rights and MLS would fit nicely into that picture. Obviously the incumbents of Disney and Univision are not going to go down with out a fight and then there is always the dark horse of Fox to maybe go after the English rights. Going to be a very fun time frame to follow this and we hope MLS can ride the wave to a nice contract for 2015 and beyond.
Well, if NBC Sports/Comcast now. Is willing to spend as silly as they do for the Olympics then ESPN/Disney won't match them. It just wont matter to them as much. ESPN is super huge with or without the world cup. this gives NBC much leverage pending how much they want the property.
Just to be clear, you're talking about winning World Cup rights for 2018, right? ESPN already has everything locked up through fall 2014. I really have no clue which company might be best for MLS or its fans, but we'll probably have a good read on it by 2014 after NBC has 3 years of work.
Yes, that is why I said "wins in 2014", when the next set of rights is expected to be bid on. The wC rights are always sold well in advance, usually 4 years in advance. The last time in 2006, FIFA sold the rights to 2010, and 2014 together. So there is a chance that FIFA may do the same in 2014, for the 2018 and 2022 rights. Since all of the MLS rights expire in 2014, many people feel that whom ever wins the World Cup rights will likely also be the home of MLS for the 4-8 year period starting in 2015.
It comes down to the Spanish rights. They are the key to the whole deal IMO. Remember that for 2010-2014, Univision spent $320 million on the Spanish rights while Disney only spent $100 million for the English rights. I think the gap is going to close a bit between the two rights but the Spanish rights will likely be more expensive. As for the NBCUniversal decision, they need to take a long look at Telemundo and decide if they are happy being number 2 or if they want to take on the the Univision giant. If they want to go after the top spot, obviously winning the spanish world cup rights is going to be huge for their strategy. Sadly, while a lot of this appear clear to me, I still have no idea how much money MLS will get once everything shakes out.
Shhh... Most people don't realize Univision ratings are much better than CW ratings and often do better than the other broadcast networks in total viewers and key demos.