IMFC-TFC ESPN: 181K That's a bad number for ESPN, but quite good given that there was no US home market involved in this match. 181k neutrals watched an MLS regular season match.
That could simply be reflective of the target demographic moving to digital media. There are similar changes in other sports - Nascar and UFC TV ratings on FS1 are falling (Indy and F1 are up slightly) - the Masters golf championship lost 11% from 2016 - the MLB All-Star game ratings were similar to 2016 when it hit historic lows - MLB local TV ratings have fallen at 18 of the 29 US based teams - Local NBA ratings drop substantially during 2016-17 season The hopeful thing is that MLS ratings on FS1 are up but still a blip on the radar. I'd love to know how many MLS Live subscribers there are.
Just an idea. At the start of the season the TV companies should only announce matches from March to mid-August. After that feature matches where both teams have something important at stake to build a narrative that may attract neutral fans. On September 10th FS1 are covering Sounders vs Galaxy. Meanwhile there's NYC vs Portland, a significant match-up for both teams. Similarly ESPN is covering Red Bulls vs Union the same weekend as San Jose are playing Houston a game that will affect 6 or 7 other teams. I see around 8 upcoming nationally broadcast matches where one team is toast, while other match-ups those weekends are meaningful to both teams. That's the way to build a consistent TV audience.
The problem with flex-scheduling is that local attendance is still the primary driver for revenue. Moving games around is going to hurt that. Most of the national TV games are on Friday or Sunday. In your first example, they would have to move the NYC/Portland game from Saturday afternoon to Sunday. I'm sure that FS1 is showing college football that Saturday afternoon. Maybe all of the NYC fans would still show up on Sunday but there is risk. And FS1 would presumably want the SEA/LAG game moved so as not to compete. Probably less impact there but it is still a risk. The league would have to be more sure of the fans being flexible or the TV networks would have to pay more to compensate for that loss. Do we have evidence that MLS TV viewership would be greater for games that involve playoff scenarios? I guess that if all the games in September and October were scheduled for Saturday and then a couple each week were moved onto Sunday that might work. It would be nice to see the league go to that but I'm not convinced the league and TV partners think it is worth it.
And even leagues that do flex games (like the NFL) never flex them for TV to a different date. The Sunday Night Football games late int he season are Flex picks by NBC, but they can only pick from the other games on Sunday, not from the Thursday or Monday (or sometimes Saturday) games. Nobody wants to screw the home fans just to change the TV on a game.
Gladly take these over paying OTT for Qualis and leagues we can stream now. Heading backwards to the 90's/00's in terms of availiblity and cost with Gold/ESPN/Turner. Maybe FOX will be the holdout. Thx, Jay!
Fox president of advertising revenue Joe Marchese: “Working with brands and agencies that choose to buy these new formats, we will heighten consumer engagement with and immersion in our content while simultaneously giving meaningful attention and focus to brand messages. We have already been collaborating with brands and agencies that understand the need to evolve the model. They are the ones that are going to receive the prime attention and get ahead, leaving behind those that try to make everything fit a legacy TV-buying model.” Someone please tell me I'm not the only one who has no idea what the hell he's talking about.
Customers will appreciate us interrupting their sport to show to provide them information pertaining to potential purchases. Advertisers will pay us big money. It will fit any TV, even the ones you bought last year.
If they scheduled the matches two or three weeks ahead then I'm sure teams and fans would accommodate them, especially if they believe it will result in bigger TV ratings. Sky Sports has only announced matches between start of the season and October 1st. If Huddersfield are still in the top six by mid-September they're probably more likely to be covered than if they've sunk in to mid-table.
I'm going to take a different attitude about this. More advertising is almost inevitable; this is about as unobtrusive as it can get. Six seconds: it can take longer than that to take a GK; deal with injuries - real or fake; actually take a PK after it's been called; getting the ball out of the stands; etc. My concern, though, is who's making the decision 'when' to cut to the commercial. It's easy for someone familiar with the game; but if it's just some 'tv guy', timing could be a real problem.
The linked article doesn't' seem to give details but I was assuming the game will still be visible in a smaller portion of the screen or something. I definitely hope they don't completely "leave" the game even if it is 6 seconds. That will for sure at some point result in an import aspect of a game getting missed.
If that's the case, then I really have little problem with this. Obviously I, as well as most of us, would rather not have any interruptions/distractions; but the reality is if there's a way to make a few more bucks, someone's going to take advantage of it.
Ref calls a free-kick outside the box. Producer cuts to commercial. Player takes quick free-kick short, team mate bangs the ball into the back of the net, we cut back from commercial.
The ability to advertise more in soccer games make them more valuable to the networks. That means more money for tv rights, and by extension more money for MLS teams to spend on better players. Better league. Rinse, and repeat.
Yea, that's my biggest concern: But if they're not actually cutting away from the game (and just using a smaller box in a corner) for those six seconds, then that should eliminate that problem.
Did you just compare EPL fans to MLS fans on the likelihood they can roll with the punches on a day of the game change? Really?
In Colombia we have had ads during games for ages..... most of the time the ad is on one of the lower bottom corners of the screen and the audio changes to the one on the Ad. after a while you don't notice them anymore