It's not. I've lived in Norfolk, Charlotte, Chicago and San Diego and there are always people to talk to about soccer. More so now than 10 or 15 years ago. Even living in Okinawa now. Sure during football season you see more NFL gear around base but you see soccer stuff year round.
Yeah there are explanations, and a huge one is the US not being there. Still, fox advertised the crap out of it, so they might be a bit worried. Let's see how Spain vs approval did before judging though.
I actually feel like fox has not advertised it well. Also the change in broadcaster has to be taken into account when looking at ratings. But the US not being in it is going to massively reduce the ratings. Anybody that didnt expect that is silly. Imagine the Olympic ratings if there were no US athletes. Anybody that uses this world cup as an argument that soccer can never make it is ignorant. IMO if the US not being in it didnt negatively affect the ratings there would be more cause for concern for the game here. I would think the ratings would drop drastically in any soccer nation if their team didn't make it.
I know the World Cup is happening, but if I weren't a follower already, I'm not sure I would know when it is on or even what channels. I know there have been ads, but they have made zero impression on me.
I agree Fox's promotion has not been effective. I just don't think their machine is as good as ESPN at hyping big events. Or Moscow is colluding with........... (nah I won't go that route for a joke!)
Fox's audience for Spain-Portugal:2,924,000 on TV287,000 online3,211,000 totalOther viewership figures so far totals so far (streaming and TV combined)Uruguay-Egypt 903,000Morocco-Iran 1,695,000Russia-Saudi Arabia 1,494,000— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) June 16, 2018
I think we were just awarded the 2026 World Cup due to our flagrant collusion with both Mexico and Canada.
Thursday’s final tallies saw Fox "Sports pulling 39 percent of what ESPN did the same day in 2014, while Telemundo earned just 35 percent of what Univision did that same day and year." https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/l...-cup-coverage-posts-strong-second-day-1120706 Of course timing doesn't help.
I joked about it in the pbp thread earlier, but it was the middle of the second day before I realized the WC had actually started. And I'm not one that should need to be reminded...
TV Ratings: World Cup Coverage Posts Strong Second Day TV Ratings Fox Sports sees a 75 percent lift from the modest Russia kickoff. It’s quite clear that the 2018 World Cup in Russia stands no chance of living up to the lofty ratings highs of Brazil four years ago, but Day 2 brought much more promising numbers than the soft opener. Overnight returns for Friday coverage of the games give Spain and Portugal’s 3-3 draw a 2.6 rating among metered market households for Fox Sports. That’s up 75 from the previous day’s opener.
Telemundo average audience for Mexico vs. Germany: 6.56 million (most-watched sporting event in network history)Across all platforms: 7.4 million.Peaked at 8 million.— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) June 18, 2018
FS1 TV audience was 4 million— Steven Goff (@SoccerInsider) June 18, 2018 Looks like America's team this cycle is Mexico!
Seems to me that there's a lot of hyperbole about Fox's WC ratings early on... Up 75% from a bare fraction of 2014 is still a bare fraction.
TV ratings are a poor way of measuring viewership now unless they include online viewings. They hardly ever take DVR viewings unless they release the ratings several days later. I record every game on TV, and the rest I watch on replay on ESPN+. This trend will only grow.
I watch most of my sporting events on my couch....on my phone because my daughter's are watching cartoons.
Those numbers are released too. Steam numbers are in the 100s if thousands range, not millions. They don't change much. DVR ratings shouldn't even count, all commercials are skipped.
Depends what you’re measuring. If we’re talking about whether or not a TV show should have been cancelled based on ratings then yes exclude DVR viewings. If you want to truly look at viewings of an event based on popularity you need to include DVR viewings. Remembering reading something a few months ago about viewership of all sports in the US being down; although soccer was less affected.
The only ratings that matter are the ones that measure what commercials were watched, period. Remember, TV isn't the product, the viewers are. TV exists (outside of some public good requirements and PBS) to sell advertising and/or subscriptions. That's it. That's its whole goal. So you might have the most popular show in history when adding in DVR numbers, but that's meaningless if nobody is watching the commercials.
Actually DVR views do count as a fraction of a live view. Commercials are designed got you to spot what is being advertised as you fast forward...