While this will likely be the biggest TV ratings for NBCSN, it won't come close to the gigantic audiences NBC is drawing. NBC drew 28 million the other night for gymnastics, the women's gold cup game will be lucky to draw around 10 million, which is a awesome number but obviously no where near the NBC numbers. Also for NBC to put any soccer game on the main station is a lose lose 1) if they show commercials, they will get a ton of complaints 2) if they don't show commercials they will lose money
It's a 2:30pm game, they should've show it on NBC, the rating would've been more than 10mil for sure.
Nice. Would this include Versus? NBCSportsPR @NBCSportsPR 4.35 million watch Team USA-Japan gold medal soccer match on@NBCSN. Most-watched event in the history of NBC Sports Network#Olympics EDIT: I guess so....(edit #2: maybe they just mean Stanley Cup Finals by NBCSN) darren rovell @darrenrovell The women’s gold medal soccer match was the most watched event on the NBC Sports Network, beats every Stanley Cup Final game on channel.
And finally: Richard Deitsch @richarddeitsch NBC says US-Japan women's soccer was the most-streamed event in Olympic history: 1.467 million streams. Now if NBCSN can just stream MLS games...
Soccer America published the top 10 events ever on NBCSN/VS NBC SPORTS NETWORK VIEWING EVENT ... VIEWERS 1. 2012 Olympic Women's Soccer: USA-Japan 4.350 million 2. 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 3: Flyers-Blackhawks 3.600 million 3. 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 4: Red Wings-Penguins 3.448 million 4. 2012 Olympic Men’s Basketball: USA vs. Argentina 3.330 million 5. 2012 Olympics -- Including Rowing Qualifying 3.140 million 6. 2010 NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 4: Flyers-Blackhawks 3.126 million 7. 2009 NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 3: Red Wings-Penguins 2.955 million 8. 2012 Olympic Women's Soccer: USA-Canada 2.918 million 9. 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 3: Canucks-Bruins 2.757 million 10. 2011 NHL Stanley Cup Final Game 4: Canucks-Bruins 2.714 million *NBC Sports Network was rebranded from VERSUS in Jan. 2012.
I wonder if Phil and Paul have ever gotten confused as what to call the network during the Tour de France. Its gone from Outdoor Life Network to OLN to Versus to NBC Sports Network while they've had the TdF contract.
I don't know all the $ figures for ad revenue in a given time slot, but just saying that an afternoon soccer game won't draw as much as gynastics did on NBC does not mean it shouldn't be shown. If it would have been the largest (or one of the largest) draws on a non-broadcast channel during this Olympics then there's a good argument it should have been shown live. You are comparing night time NBC numbers of one of the biggest draws (gymnastics) to an afternoon broadcast on NBCSN. Not a useful comparison. Also, give that 1.5 million people streamed it and well over 4 million watched it, it could have done a lot lot better on NBC.
Actually it was the post he responded to that made that comparison, MLSFan123 was just pointing out that the statement that this was easily the biggest ratings of the Olympics for NBC thus far was badly wrong.
Even if that's true, I was mostly responding to some of what MLSFan123 wrote about it being a lose lose and not wanting to put it on NBC itself. I still think it was a mistake not to do so. Women's soccer had been drawing more than the Men's basketball (god that must be boring to watch them blow teams out) on the cable channels. No reason to think it would have done markedly worse than the Men's final in baseketball (on NBC 10 AM on Sunday). The Men will likely end up doing better since its a weekend and will clearly get a better rating since they actually DID get on the regular network.
You missed the entire point of the post it seems. It is all about commercial time. You have two choices if NBC wants to put soccer on the main network and both suck for them. Show soccer with commercials and get lambasted by fans and the press Show soccer with out commercials and lose money no matter how many people tune in. Not sure why you can't understand the difference in ad revenue generated during a basketball game with a ton of commercials and during a soccer game with no commercials, but until you recognize that, I don't think you are going to understand the general point. How many people watch is only part of the equation NBC has to deal with but you seem to think it is the only part of the equation. NBC are not being idiots even if you think they are. They are mostly putting events on the main network that draw women and have a large amount of ad time. The main network is where they have to make the vast majority of the ad revenue. If you don't think that is important I encourage to look up just how much money NBC spent on the rights.
I have not seen all the numbers but the US men's hoop preliminary round game against Argie out drew the US women's soccer semi final game. The men's game was an absolute blowout costing them fans in the second half where as the women obviously benefitted from the OT where the audiance size always increases. http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...etwork-to-most-watched-total-day-ever/144231/
Exactly. The Men's games will continue to be blowouts, which is why fewer people care to watch. Can you blame them? I turned it on yesterday for a few minutes and then stopped watching. I also didn't say it had to outdraw the Women's soccer or even get more revenue in ads. My point was that if they can get comparable viewership then NBC should put it on broadcast. You may not have watched the Women's game, but there ended up being a lot of commercials between the beginning of the pregame show and the end of the medal ceremony. I imagine a lot of the viewers stayed around. I'm not saying they would have gotten the same revenue, but my other point is that it isn't all about revenue. And yes, I know its not all about viewers, but you seem to assume it is all about ad revenue. My contention is that both are important even if ad revenue is more important. By your logic it seems like no soccer game should ever be on broadcast TV. I'm not sure if I buy that. If, for example 20 million people watched the US women, would it still have been a mistake to put it on NBC? There has to be some point where it makes sense even without as many ads. Particularly in the middle of the afternoon when ratings can't be that high the bar should be lower for moving the game.
Soccer can easily be on broadcast tv when the numbers for the ad revenue support it. The Olympics are not one of those times unless you are will to have 4-5 commercials per half during the run of play. You must really in your heart believe that NBC is thinking "hey, we can make more money on soccer on the main network with no commercials but lets move it to a side channel instead. Our stock holders will be pleased with that business decision"
OK. At least that's a starting point I admit I don't know enough specifics to know the exact numbers. Why not? Fox had broadcast mid-day EPL and Champions League games on network TV at well under 2 million viewers. Are the women's viewership that much worse than those games? They are actually a lot better. Is there something else special about what was on NBC on Thursday afternoon? In DC it's Ellen (averages around 2.74 million according to an article I found) and local News @4 (no idea of those ratings). I realize there is a difference in ad revenue with soccer, but I'm sure it could pull more than 2.74 million by a lot given the numbers it actually got on NBCSN plus streaming. They also would have likely promoted it more if it were on NBC. Nope, but thanks for projecting the idea you wanted to argue against. I thought I made it clear that ratings and revenue should both be in the discussion. Either you didn't read it or comprehend. Keep in mind it isn't "no commercials" or anything close to that. From 2:30 until 5:15 or whenever the broadcast moved away from soccer, I'd guess there were 30-45 minutes of commercials. That is certainly less than the normal Olympics but its far more than zero. They could have sold sponsorship of the game. You know how broadcasters often say "this game is brought to you commercial free by _____" There's some more ad revenue for you. I'm pretty sure there are advertisers interested in the demographic that watched the US women's gold medal game. Anyway, its all far more than zero. Generating more hype and higher viewership numbers to put out in press releases and to advertise other Olympic or NBC properties is also valuable. Its just much more complex that it *seems* like you are making it. Perhaps you have a more nuanced view than your posts are showing, but since you keep coming back to ad revenue and also say that soccer has "no commercials", I'm just writing about some of the other factors.
You still seem to be missing the point so this will be the last post I make on this topic as I am sure people are bored with it. You really need to stop looking at just the number of viewers always and try and understand just how much the rights fees are for different events. I encouraged you earlier to look up just how much NBC spent on the Olympics. From the comparison above it is obvious that you may not know that NBC is on the hook for $4.3 billion dollars for the next few Olympics. The best way they can make up that money is by ad revenue on the main station. Soccer does not draw enough ad revenue in comparison to other events. You need to ignore pre game and half time revenue because all sports will have those and in general the ad rates are lower during those times. Soccer falls behind because it lacks commercial time during the games when ad rates are at their peak. Why don't we just leave it as I think NBC understands their financial needs probably than we do , unless you are crazy enough to think that NBC is so biased against soccer that they are willing to lose money because of it (I don't think you do hopefully). Feel free to have last word, I have explained as best I can.
NBC spent a lot on the Olympics. One way to get some of that money back would be to move games that get lower ratings (and also lower ad revenue) by being on cable onto broadcast to make back some of those fees. Unless you argue that putting the game on broadcast will somehow generate lower viewership or ad revenues than the same game would on cable. I think the whole problem with your argument is that you think I'm suggesting that they broadcast the whole game in prime time and pre-empt other sports that get greater ad revenue and potentially greater ratings. I'm not. I'm suggesting they should have broadcast the game on NBC on Thursday afternoon where it would likely draw a lot more ad money (although clearly less than a game with commercials... I get that) than it would draw on NBCSN. For instance, they broadcast all games on the Olympic Soccer Channel, but some big games were also broadcast all or in part on NBCSN (and maybe MSNBC as well, I'm not sure). The same type of decision could have been made on the Women's gold medal game, to broadcast on a more watched network. I (and many many people who know a lot more about this than either of us) also don't think that NBC has made all the right decisions with this Olympics, so just saying it is correct because they made the decision means it was correct.
You know what's weird is we got no less then three MLS games that will be on the main NBC in the next few months... 9/15 3:30 PM EST Seattle @ Portland 10/6 3:30 PM EST Chicago @ New York 10/27 1:30 PM EST New York @ Philadelphia
The basketball game did have a better timeslot (5:30-7 PM vs. 2:45-5:30 PM). It matters, esp. on weekdays.
I won't argue that. I was simply pointing out that his assertion that the US women's soccer was out drawing US men's basketball was not correct in this case.
Yeah, but your explanation just isn't right. The answer doesn't have much to do with short-term purported 'commercial value', but rather the long-run brand strategy of NBC and of NBCSN. The USA Today's Michael Heistand is often just about the worst enemy of soccer you can find still working at a major newspaper in this country. Even he had the following to say: It may have been the 'right decision', but not for the reason you're arguing. If it was the right decision, it's because they took a calculated loss in viewership so that a bunch of more dedicated sports fans would figure out where NBCSN is on the dial. It's not because the water polo brings in more revenue just because there's more ad space. First of all I doubt that's true--when a TV product is legitimately desired, scarce ad time just means that the ad space you can sell is worth more money per minute. Secondly, it's absurd to claim that NBC is trying to recoup its billions spent on the Olympics by recouping ad revenue at 2:30 in the afternoon of a weekday--even in prime time, it's a horrible loss on that calculation. What NBC is really going after is the clout that comes from having hosted the Olympic games. And there was probably a cost there, not showing the women's soccer gold medal game on the flagship. What they have to calculate is whether the short-term cost is worth the long-term gains of setting up the channel. But whether they're right or whether they're wrong in that calculation (and frankly, I think they're probably right. The very reason people are annoyed by this, that they have to break their normal habits and figure out how to watch on NBCSN, and/or maybe complain that their carrier doesn't provide it at their package level, is precisely the same reason it works out for Comcast/NBC), 'big event soccer doesn't raise enough money for Network' is the zombie take from 1993. It's time to double-tap it.
That only makes sense if you believe that NBC would have shown soccer on the main networks if there were no other channels to put the game on. It works out very nice for NBC to have other networks that they can showcase different sports on but I have to ask what you are smoking if you think soccer, with no commercials, is ever going to draw ad revenue as much as other events with a ton of commercials on the main network, no matter what time of the day it is. Remember this is the Olympics, everything draws great ratings on the main channel. Why in gods name would NBC ever turn down the money they need to help balance the books all because we happen to like soccer? It just makes so little sense to me. Quoting a near moron like Hiestand really does nothing to help your cause. And even then he doesn't say that NBC should have put the game on the main network, only that they should have shown highlights to play it up. Again though, please feel free to have the last word, it won't really matter much, you could hold a gun to my head and you are never going to convince me that NBC is going out of their way to actively lose money by not putting soccer on the main network. You really need to ignore the fact that NBCSN is around, that is a happy confluence for NBC that they were able to take advantage of by helping to build the new channels brand. However, if there were no other channels to show the game on, I firmly believe a soccer game still would not be shown in its entirety on the main network with no commercials. Something has to give for us to see a full no commercial soccer game on the main channel IMO. As much as we all love to believe we are more educated on the topic and have more information than the people who actually make the decisions, sadly we are not.
These will be the first regular season games on broadcast tv since 2008 when LA played DC on a Sunday at noon in late June. To say we are anxious and eagerly awaiting the ratings for these games in the ratings thread would be an understatement. These games are going to be up against a full slate of college football likely so we probably need to hold down our expectations a bit.
This issue is that an event (let's say canoeing), that draws 1 million viewers on NBC has more ad revenue potential than a soccer game that draws 4 million viewers. During canoeing, NBC can show 5-6x more commecials. The thing holding soccer back on TV isn't the # of viewers, it's the ad potential. If soccer was like basketball and they had commercials every 5 minutes, ESPN/Fox/NBC would be paying at least twice what they pay now to broadcast MLS/EPL/USMNT games.