EPL on ESPN2 (US) - ratings flatlining at 0.2%

Discussion in 'TV, Satellite & Radio' started by huhe888, Nov 16, 2009.

  1. huhe888

    huhe888 Red Card

    Oct 3, 2007
    The novelty of EPL telecasts on ESPN2 (US) appears to have worn off, as the ratings are flatlining at 0.2%:

    http://www.epltalk.com/premier-league-matchday-12-ratings-released-for-us-tv/12891

    The Stingbee30's of the world spent way too much time in the "Emerald Triangle" and inhaled way too much "420" by predicting much higher ratings.

    ===

    Now that FSC is in over 30 million households, over 90% of those who want to consume EPL on TV in the US have access to FSC. The big EPL matches on FSC now draw more viewers than most EPL matches on ESPN2.

    The one saving grace for EPL: the viewership skews heavily toward the 18-34 age group, the demographic sports TV advertising buyers target.
     
  2. themaestro

    themaestro Member

    Nov 9, 2005
    hmmmm

    Interesting to also read that Chelsea v Man Utd was the highest ever on FSC...good for them.

    How do I find out how many were watching a Ligue 1 match?
     
  3. stingbee30

    stingbee30 Member

    Mar 16, 2006
    Maybe, the stingbee's of the world had quoted that he wouldn't be surprised to see a game or two or three this season reaching over 400K plus. Is the season over? No, as the season progresses, with less saturation after January, there is still time to see Occasional spike for EPL games.

    Case in Point: The Manu V Chelsea game got about 320K on Fox Soccer. That is amazing for a channel only seen by 30 million. What do you think the ratings would have been if it was on ESPN2? It would have gotten to the 400K+-500K range on ESPN2 due to higher distribution. Too bad, so far this season, ESPN2 has only shown one MANU game due to limitation of their contract. So, far this season, you had two games reaching almost the 400K viewer threshold. The last Liverpool game was against a weak team, lesser known. So, we have to wait for a complete season, and one or two more years on ESPN2, before you can make that assumption. Or maybe, this trend will stay for this season, the following, and so on. If that is the case, than your assumption or EPLtalk's assumption would come to fruition, thus negating the assumptions made by the likes of me AKA Stingbee.

    And let's us not forget the time constraints of the ESPN2 contract (some games starting at 4:30 am in the morning PST or 5:00 am PST or 7:00 am PST, and other limitation of contract (not being able to show the 1st choice games on Sunday afternoons, or some of the other key games).

    Well, they have a good game this Saturday on ESPN2. After all, a better conclusion will be at the end of the season, leading to the World Cup, and what happens next year, and so on. I personally would like to point out that you are making too much of an assumption based on 3 months of data. What would the data suggest after this season? Season 2? Season 3? I think once you have seen more data, you could see the trends in more details.

    On another note, as for Fox soccer channel, it needs to reach to 70 million homes before it can charge the Premium advertisement money. According to an article on LA Times, a channel needs to get to 70 million homes before they can charge the premium advertisement dollar. I taught that is very interesting to know because i wasn't aware of this fact.
     
  4. socceraction

    socceraction Member+

    Oct 20, 2000
    stingbee,

    Reality is that FOX has already been awarded the EPL rights for the next 3 seasons after this one. ESPN didn't even bid for it it seems. Yes, current economic conditions will likely see FOX selling off a timeslot or two to ESPN (and even that is dependant upon Setanta's future) but if you think they will sell anything but the early kickoffs to ESPN or Setanta, you are dreaming. So expect the same sort of matchups for the next 3 seasons which means the same sort of ratings.

    Having the argument that later kickoffs or better games would produce better ratings is pointless. FOX put up their money where their mouth is and in just a few months will launch their own HD channel for soccer which will truly make ESPN worth even less to true soccer fans.

    Everybody here knows my stance: I don't like seeing league soccer on ESPN because they treat it as a third-rate sport. But until FSC and GOL-TV launch their own HD channels and the economics of the game change, I guess we are lucky to have them to fill the void. Don't expect anything but early kickoffs, marginal games and low ratings for the EPL on ESPN for the next 3 seasons - and that is if they even care after the World Cup....

    SA
     
  5. rangers00

    rangers00 Member

    Jun 1, 2000
    Well, back in August, the stinkbee of the worlds projected an increase of ratings once the fall (football) season started with the reasoning of "more people will watch ESPN, thus the implied idiotic logic of more people will watch EPL on ESPN2". Where is that now?

    Well, back in August, the stinkbee of the worlds projected a ratings of 1.0 in the next year or two for EPL on ESPN, depending on matchups. Now that projection is downgraded to 400K plus depending on matchups? why?

    Good to see you revise your occasional spike from 1.0 to 400K. And pretty soon, that occasional spike (depending on matchups) will be revised to 300K...

    About 320K. What do you think of an EPL game ratings directly competing against NFL GameDay? The regular soccer fans are already included in those 320K. The fringe ones would be watching NFL GameDay instead of an EPL match.

    Also notice Gaffer's trick on EPL Talk. Nowadays, he almost exclusively talks about # viewers. Earlier in the season, he talked about # households. As we all know, the #viewers > # households. Yet Nielsen's ratings is about # households, not # viewers. You using the same trick is trying to mislead that the ratings have increased.

    See, this 320K viewers for Chelsea X Man U is really nothing special. I would say the # households are in the 200s thousands, about the same as the ratings of last season's Man U X Chelsea and Liverpool X Chelsea. Yet by showing a 320K "viewers", it looks as if it had a 50% jump from last season's highest ratings...

    If I were you, I wouldn't want to talk anything about the year AFTER the World Cup. For us who followed soccer in the U.S. since the 1970s, we all know that the interest of the game diminishes AFTER the World Cup. It happens after every cycle, even after USA reached the quarter-final. So why would it be different after THIS World Cup?

    Yet who was making assumptions based on a few weeks' data (back in August) while disregarding what we told him that "the ratings was just about the novelty of the EPL"?

    The trend: EPL will be flat at around 200K households on ESPN2, as it's the same ratings for the Champions League for 10 years. We already told you so 3 months ago. You refused to accept the reality. Just because you are the campaign manager doesn't mean people will suddenly become interested in European or English soccer.

    Now, are you telling us that the trend is based on the occasional spikes with a high dependency on matchups? Is that what you mean by "trend"? occasional spikes?
     
  6. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    If the status quo continues, I will be a happy man. I fear where the games will go if Setanta dies.
     
  7. huhe888

    huhe888 Red Card

    Oct 3, 2007
    You live in Canada so you won't have to worry as Setanta Sports Canada (the digital sports TV channel operating under the Sportsnet 2 CRTC licence) is 67% owned by Rogers Media.

    Setanta Sports North America Limited only owns 33% of Setanta Sports Canada.

    Setanta Sports USA, the digital sports TV channel operating in the U.S. that is 100% owned by Setanta Sports North America Limited, is the one whose survival past May 2010 is in question.

    Setanta had to sublicense U.S. video rights to many products to ESPN, Inc. in order to keep Setanta Sports USA alive.
     
  8. blackhornet

    blackhornet Member

    Jun 26, 2008
    Club:
    Arsenal FC
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    so, DirecTV replacing Setanta next season, eh?

    I guess it might finally be time for me to go HD!
     
  9. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I have a US Directv dish, so I do worry about Setanta USA.
     
  10. monster

    monster Member

    Oct 19, 1999
    Hanover, PA
    Club:
    DC United
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Starting with the December matches, the US Marine Corps will be presenting sponsor for the EPL on ESPN. All Saturday games games are now in the advance schedule as Barclays Premier League on ESPN presented by The United States Marine Corps. Not sure if this has been the case previously, and they are just now getting around to making it accurate online or not. It also does not appear for the weekday matches.
     
  11. Real Corona

    Real Corona Member+

    Jan 19, 2008
    Colorado
    Club:
    FC Metalist Kharkiv
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Does anyone else find that ironic?
     

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