http://worldsoccertalk.com/2019/09/25/mls-games-drowned-better-quality-quantity-foreign-leagues-tv/ World Soccer Talk is back at it!
USA - Mexico friendly 386000 on FS1. That's quite low for a USMNT game... Could be because 2700000 watched on Univision though. Argentina - Mexico on Univision got 2400000 US vs Uruguay on FS1 got 245000 and 1200000 on Univision Two Liga MX games beat the top rated EPL game this week as those 2 leagues continue to be neck to neck in the race for most watched in the US. Club America vs Chivas FRIENDLY got 380000 on TUDN. The top rated MLS match was way down at #27 for soccer games this month with Atlanta vs San Jose getting 309000 on Univision. The Women's team got 342000 against Portugal, so looks like the men ARE still popular after all (if you count Spanish language). The highest rated CONCACAF nation's league match was Panama vs Bermuda with 123000 on TUDN and the lowest was Guyana vs Jamaica with 24000 on TUDN.
Thank god. This Altitude fight with the providers had me worried the Rapids would end up on FloSports in 2020 but if DC is bailing on them its a good sign they won't be getting anymore MLS contracts.
MLS does better numbers in Univision than it does in Fox and ESPN. I don't know how many games Univison has in the contract but if MLS wants to grow more it needs the Spanish TV audience. Does Telemundo not bid high enough for MLS or it was not interested?
They still have FC Cincinnati don't they? KSE doesn't care about what anyone else in the league is doing, or what would be beneficial to the fans. They never have. They're going to pick whatever solution is the cheapest and requires the least amount of effort.
I thought they were on ESPN+. Or was that the Fire? At the same time, this is where single-entity helps. The league can't stop KSE from going with FloSports, but they can heavily suggest it would be a bad idea. More so than the other sports leagues.
Fire for one more year, hopefully with all the changes going on here, that we will bail on year 3 of ESPN+ and get our games on Local TV (Maybe WGN, they don't have the Cubs, White Sox, Bulls and Hawks anymore)
If I recall correctly, NBC wanted exclusive rights and backed out entirely instead of getting a slice of the deal.
Crew fans, understandably, hope Precourt goes with them in Austin (where the company is based), assuming FloSports survives until 2021, that is.
ESPN says its coverage of @MLS posted a 2% increase during the 2019 regular season. ESPN and ESPN2's coverage of 31 matches, averaged 246,000 viewers vs. 241,000 last season. Seattle Sounders FC vs. Atlanta United FC on July 14 drew the biggest audience, with 462,000 viewers.— Michael McCarthy (@MMcCarthyREV) October 8, 2019 Modest gains.
America vs Chivas in a real game got 2 million on Univision. Nearest EPL match was at 741k on NBC. Most watched MLS match of that week was a very sad Minnesota vs LAFC with 84k on FS1 (19th for the week) Red Bulls vs DC was a more sad 79k on FS1, slightly less than the 80k a women's Liga MX match had. On the bright side, MLS is doing a LOT better than Bundesliga on TUDN
Here's a little more detail on the 2019 ratings from SBJ (including FS1 and Univision data): MLS TV viewership for the 2019 season (compared to '18):ESPN/ESPN2: avg. 246k viewers, up 2% YoY.FS1: avg 160k viewers, up 5% YoY.Univision: avg. 238K viewers, down 17% YoY.— Ian Thomas (@byIanThomas) October 8, 2019
Also there's a tidbit from this SportsPro article: "Meanwhile, according to Adweek, MLS’s social channels generated 2.2 billion impressions during the 2019 regular season, representing a 38 per cent increase on the 2018 campaign, while social interactions were also up 27 per cent. Adweek added that video was the main contributor to the increase, with MLS recording 777 million video views across all of its channels in 2019, up a whopping 132 per cent compared to last year."
Comcast customers are going to get a rebate on their Regional Sports Network fee for Altitude not being on Comcast at the moment. https://denver.cbslocal.com/2019/10...edit-on-bill-during-altitude-sports-blackout/
For MLS, it becomes clear that interest is there. It might mostly be in terms of watching highlights and keeping up with the progress of the season, but the interest is there. That’s good. For a final assessment of game viewership we will have to wait for Sports Business Daily’s end-of-season article. That will give us a good idea where Spanish Language simulcasts, streaming, and OOH numbers stand. The ESPN number stands a good chance of eclipsing 300,000 excluding Spanish language simulcasts which are never combined in these articles.
I'm posting this because it provides pretty detailed data on the TV and streaming ratings for the NHL in the US and a good measuring stick for MLS. http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2...rs-viewership-increases-across-all-platforms/ Interesting things to note: 1) Games on NBC do really well for the NHL. (1.316 million) 2) NBCSN games were up a little bit (313,000 from a rock bottom 302,00) 3) The streaming numbers seem really low compared to MLS, but I could be wrong.