fair enough. I have enjoyed this discussion. Sad that it will be 4 more years before we find out if soccer can push its way onto the main network.
I agree it seemed strange but the fact that they did this during the water polo match (according to an earlier post) may indicate it was not a complete random event.
As a related note, I read online that some are bummed how NBC handled the Men's 5000m race. The entire race was 13 minutes long and half of it was filled with commercials. I would be very impressed with NBC if they went 45-47 minutes or so between commercials for a soccer game during the Olympics on the main channel in 2016. Maybe as others mentioned they might explore other means to advertise during a soccer game that won't fully cut away from the action.
Given how much stuff they had on tape delay at the olympics this year, they could always cut to a commercial and resume the broadcast on a 5 minute delay from the spot of the game that they left or whatever.
In 2016 I think they will be able to show a bit more live because it will be in Brazil which I think is in a better time zone for US viewers but your point is still valid no matter what.
Soccer (at least the US, and I think most games) were shown live even if they were also re-run later. Also true that in Brazil that won't be as much of an issue.
I went back and checked. Each half had an approximately 1:15 commercial at the end of 1st and 3rd quarter respectively. The first half had another 30 second commercial and the 2nd half had two 15 second commercials. It was even less than I had remembered. Add that to about 10 minutes (I didn't check that one too carefully but that was about what it seemed like) at halftime and you've got about 13.5 minutes over the course of the game vs. about 10 or maybe a little more in soccer. If they can make the decision to show a basketball game with 13.5 minutes of commercials, I'm pretty sure they can make the decision to show a soccer game with 10 minutes of commercials. Also, when they missed part of the game in the 2nd half they cut away at a non-stopping point in the game and came back as the US was draining a 3 (after missing one or two possessions). Still unclear whether it was on purpose or not. It seemed like it was. In terms of ratings, the Men's basketball team jumped to 4 times from their average on NBCSN for the gold medal game. http://www.nba.com/2012/news/08/14/usa-hoops-olympic-ratings/ I imagine the women's soccer could have pulled around 5-8 million or more despite the much worse time slot.
Here's a new MLS on NBCSN ad, haven't seen it on TV yet though. Personally, I don't like it, I don't think the song works, and they only show 1 actual soccer play (the NY goal). The ad has a celebratory tone that I don't think goes with the final stretch to get to the playoffs that they are selling. It just seem to me like if you're selling the march to the playoffs, shouldn't it be about the struggle to get there? I mean, nobody's won anything yet, what are you celebrating? Anyway, here it is:
I think they were going for a rugged type of celebration, if such a thing exists. The song is very rough, which might go with the whole struggle they wanna depict with the upcoming playoffs. In truth, celebration has a huge role in what makes playoffs so great in American sports including this one, so I have no problem with the emphasis.
I just read Awful Announcing reporting that DirecTV will move NBCSN up in channel assignment. The hope is that more people can find it when it settles on the new number. http://www.awfulannouncing.com/2012-articles/august/nbc-sports-network-to-get-boost-from-channel-relocation.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
I thought this would be of interest to everyone here. NBC has decided to change its Olympics Extra Live app to a general sports app. Read on: http://www.nbcumv.com/mediavillage/sports/nbcsports/pressreleases?pr=contents/press-releases/2012/08/30/nbcolympicslive1346357945876.xml The first game for the new app will be the Notre Dame-Purdue college football game on the 8th. The network debut for MLS is September 15 with a Portland/Seattle game. I would hope that they'll add a stream for it as well since the app is now being updated. Not entirely sure if the streaming will include PCs and laptops for us hoi polloi. NBC has been known to stream the NHL and NFL whenever they appear on the network. I didn't bother to check if that was the case with the women's soccer game yesterday. ETA: App available for Android users https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=air.com.nbcuni.com.nbcsports.liveextra&feature=search_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDEsImFpci5jb20ubmJjdW5pLmNvbS5uYmNzcG9ydHMubGl2ZWV4dHJhIl0.
Thanks for the link to Android devices. I was about to rant that NBC's olympic app did NOT work on my Android Razr.
I upgraded the Live Extra app just a few days ago. It hasn't been changed from the Olympic app at all other than the branding. The Notre Dame-Purdue game is shown as taking place on Day 43 of the Olympics. I'm not joking. I think we will see further updates to this app pretty soon. ------RM
For the third quarter, NBC Sports Network had a rise of 105% over last year in total daily viewers, although they had a 8% drop in prime time viewers over the same period. Meanwhile, Fox Soccer had drops in both categories. http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Daily/Issues/2012/10/09/Research-and-Ratings/Q3-viewers.aspx
Minus 31% and - 43% .. perfect. When they lost MLS rights (and used their minion to attack the league) they not only lost me for the MLS games that used to be on but also other contents I used to stick around and watch. I haven't set foot there more than thrice the whole year (the exceptions were couple of CCL and USOC games).
It is easy (or easier) for them to show a bit more love for soccer (in the form of MLS) when the NHL is not playing due to a lockout.
Are those games part of the package NBCSN was going to air anyways, or did they literally buy 2 extra games that were originally gonna air on local tv only.
Unfortunately it looks like at least the first of these games will now be unavailable through MLS Live in the US (http://www.mlssoccer.com/weekly-tv-listings). Although the total number of games you can see through the league's streaming service continues to grow (along with its price), the downside of these national TV deals is that more games than ever can't be seen live if you don't subscribe to an expensive cable package. Obviously it's not worth whining about too much (especially with the availability of illegal streams ) but I probably would have watched SEA-RSL on Wednesday and now I'll likely skip it.
These games were not initially a part of the NBCSN package of MLS games this season, afaik. I doubt NBCSN had to "buy the games" -- as I'm assuming SUM likely just gave them the "extra" content at this point, and the league will take the added "national" exposure of a few more regular season games on NBCSN. (Will be interesting to see what the post-season TV schedule looks like this year.) Fair points. But your case is "relatively unique" and I would think most/more people would see it as a positive that these two Wednesday games are on a channel with fairly strong household penetration (and not just available locally or via DK and MLSLive). (And you could of course settle for a stream of some quality/stability or head out to some establishment that might be showing these games -- and that might be a tall order given that they'll be going up against post-season MLB.)
No doubt. I can see why it's a worthwhile tradeoff from the league perspective even though I suspect the game will probably end up with well under 100K viewers on NBC Sports Network. I'd love to see numbers on total MLS Live+Direct Kick subscribers but I'd definitely agree that my case is "relatively unique." Just expressing some minor personal frustration.
The RSL-SEA game was local broadcast only. This isn't a big deal, but the local viewership numbers in SLC will probably be lower with the game on NBCSN. RSL broadcasts have been on OTA channels (the WB affiliate, I think). NBCSN is in many fewer households, obviously, and RSL games on NBC have had stinktacular ratings so far this year. Don't be surprised if the game gets < 60k.
http://www.mlssoccer.com/tv That still lists the game on KONG locally in Seattle even though it is also on NBCSN nationally. Don't know if that is an error listing or if SLC can/might also get/keep the game on some local option. Note, this was also a game initially scheduled in the summer but was re-scheduled to Oct 17 by MLS to make room for the Chelsea at Sounders friendly.