The best rating MLS has gotten in a long time came from FOX doing exactly this. *shrug* But mostly, there are options other than “stream only is the only option” that allow for bundling local broadcasting.
I was just about to mention this. A couple years ago Fox did a sunday round of games featuring two or three “national” games shown regionally. I believe the combine rating was 600k??? Someone needs to correct me on this because i am sure i am wrong. All i remember is that number was shockingly high.
I believe the games were before and after the 1 and after the 1 and 4pm NFL games. Either way that a good strategy to enlarge the small but diehard MLS base of fans if its done consistently. Its a chicken before egg thing. You only have 4-6 national games once every 2 months you don't have enough of a presence to automatically get decent OTA audiences. Before EPL started on NBC the 2013-14 season EPL averaged 140k on FSC/FOX/FuelTV and about 260k on ESPN. It wasn't until the moved to NBC and regularly being featured on NBC that ratings shot up to 391k that first year and averaged 457k. This season on NBC/NBCSN. The same can happen for MLS if it moves smart and finds a way to work in a consistent OTA time and time that with the upgrade in talent that would occur by significantly increasing the cap. https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2019/05/nba-draft-lottery-ratings-wcf-indycar-pga/ http://nbcsportsgrouppressbox.com/2015/08/10/nbc-sports-group-agrees-to-6-year-extension-to-remain-the-exclusive-u-s-home-of-the-premier-league/ https://awfulannouncing.com/2012-articles/nbc-wins-english-premier-league-rights-beginning-next-year.html
After the Red Bulls win, FS1 showed the playoff line as if 6 clubs make the playoffs, but it's up to 7.
MLS TV 2019 TV Ratings ESPN Networks/ FOX Networks/ Univision Networks Week 1 OCSC vs NYCFC 355K Univision March 2 Sat 230pm LAG vs CHI 174K FS1 March 2 Sat 8pm SEA vs FC Cinci 199k FS1 March 2 Sat 10pm DCU vs ATL UTD 394K ESPN Mar 3 Sun 6pm LAFC vs SKC 361K ESPN Mar 3 Sun 830pm Week2 FCD vs LAG 244K Univision Mar 9 Sat 330pm ATL vs FC Cinci 354K ESPN Mar 10 Sun 500pm LAFC vs POR 221K FS1 Mar 10 Sat 730pm Week 3 NYRB vs San Jose 274K Univision Mar 16 Sat 330pm NYCFC vs LAFC 140K FS1 Mar 17 Sun 3pm FC Cinci vs POR 178K FS1 Mar 17 Sun 5pm Week 4 FCD vs Colorado UniMas 229K Mar 23 Sat 545pm Week 5 San Jose vs LAFC Univision 339k Mar 30 Sat 330pm OCSC vs DCU FS1 130K Mar 31 Sun 630pm LAG vs POR 217k ESPN2 Mar 31 Sun 9pm Week 6 DCU vs LAFC FOX 341k Apr 6 Sat 3pm FC Cinci vs SKC ESPN 239k Apr 7 Sun 3pm Week 7 Houston vs San Jose Univision 239k Apr 13 Sat 3pm Minn vs NYCFC ESPN2 119k Apr 13 5pm SKC vs NYRB FS1 90k Apr 14 7pm Week 8 LAG vs Houston UniMas 223k Apr 19 Fri 11pm ATL vs FCD ESPN 248k Apr 20 Sat 4pm DCU vs NYCFC ESPN 166k Apr 21 Sun 4pm LAFC vs SEA FS1 172k Apr 21 Sun 7pm Week 9 FCD vs San Jose Univision 216k Apr 27 Sat 330pm Minn vs DCU FS1 91k Apr 28 Sun 130pm Sea vs LAFC ESPN 209k Sun Apr 28 330pm Week 10 NYRB vs LAG ESPN 260k May 4 Sat 2pm Houston vs FCD Univision 345k May 4 Sat 4pm SKC vs ATL FS1 144k May 5 Sun 9pm Week 11 FCD vs NYRB Univision 234k May 11 Sat 2pm LAG vs NYCFC ESPN 261k May 11 Sat 4pm ATL vs Orlando FOX 395k May 12 Sun 230pm DCU vs SKC FS1 184k May 12 Sun 7pm Week 12 LAFC vs FCD 112k ESPN2 May 16 Thurs 10pm San Jose vs CHI ?? UNI May 18 Sat 330pm NYRB vs ATL UTD 147k FS1 19 Sun 5pm Total Network Average 233.7k Average ESPN Networks 245k Average Fox Networks 186.1k Average Univision Networks 270.1k All ratings are sourced from the below sites http://www.showbuzzdaily.com (Search MLS or Major League Soccer) http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/?s=MLS http://worldsoccertalk.com/category/tv-ratings/ https://programminginsider.com/category/ratings/ Upcoming Week 13 OCSC vs LAG UniMas May 24 Fri 7pm RSL vs ATL UTD UniMas May 24 Fri 9pm CHI vs NYCFC UNI May 25 Sat 330pm SKC vs SEA FS1 May 26 Sun 6pm Upcoming Week 14 ATL UTD vs CHI UniMas Jun 1 Sat 6pm POR vs LAFC ESPN2 Jun 1 Sat 1030pm Upcoming Week 15 NYRB vs CHI UniMas Jun 28 Fri 8pm Col vs LAFC UniMas Jun 28 Fri 10pm Minn vs CHI ESPN June 29 Sat 4pm Por vs FCD UniMas June 30 Sun 11pm Upcoming Week 16 ATL UTD vs NYRB FOX July 7 Sun 2pm NYCFC vs POR FS1 July 7 Sub 630pm Upcoming Week 17 DCU vs NER ESPN July 12 Fri 7pm HOU vs LAFC UniMas July 12 Fri 9pm LAG vs San Jose UniMas July 12 Fri 11pm SEA vs ATL UTD ESPN July 14 Sun 355pm NYRB vs NYCFC FS1 July 14 Sun 630pm
ATL vs Orlando FOX 395k May 12 Sun 230pm That's a standout. Minn vs DCU FS1 91k Apr 28 Sun 130pm So is that.
Those numbers are not going to encourage ABC/ESPN to put more games over the air during the next contract. Fox has world cup rights until 2026 correct?
Yes FOX does. I always look at things in a vacuum, looking at it from multiple years and not focus on a single pinpoint but a whole time frame and period which have been favorable for MLS 5 yrs in to the current deal. MLS is much better positioned going into negotiations than it was last TV deal. That said MLS needs to get things right with the CBA this offseason with significantly increasing the cap to generate future league growth.
I realize this is a TV thread, but TV is just one of many portals from which people consume content. Similarly televisions numbers are just one aspect of how companies monetize their media properties. WNBA isn't in the same league as MLS. If you take a look at www.similarweb.com you can get an idea of why. WNBA in April Total Visits 641.48K 109.8% Avg. Visit Duration 00:03:29 Pages per Visit 3.56 Bounce Rate 49.28% SoundersFC in April Total Visits 326.99K 23.34% Avg. Visit Duration 00:02:25 Pages per Visit 2.25 Bounce Rate 53.25% But these numbers tell only part of the story. Almost half the WNBA numbers are from subdomains like Storm.WNBA.com (9%); Lynx.wnba.com (8%) sky.wnba.com (4%) ; Sparks.wnba.com (3%) . By the same token MLS is still an order of magnitude below the NHL and MLB but it is steadily gaining traction. Atlanta, Minnesota, LAFC all add traffic. So do all the USL and USL2 teams that are steadily growing as well. NHL and MLB have had decades to build up fans that follow players from minor leagues to the top league. Few MLS teams have had more than a few years.
I'm not a WNBA fan, but they don't have national team games to bundle with their league to raise the value of their product. In fact, not only is MLS the only American league that has a significant advantage in negotiations due to this tactic, I'd argue that the national team games are more valuable to networks than the league games. The small rise in MLS viewership from 2012-2018 can easily be attributed to expansion. It's natural that as more teams are added to the league, general interest in those metro areas will go up. MLS added 5 teams during that span, which should easily contribute to a 100K increase in viewership. I'd say it's not a fair comparison because less than 1% of Americans would call women's basketball their favorite sport. While a record number of Americans (7%) called soccer their favorite sport in 2018, the most watched MLS Cups remain the first three finals, when soccer was actually less popular; and nine teams that started the season in 2015 or earlier have seen their best attendance numbers during their first year in existence. This tells me that fans want to like the league and have given it a chance, but it falls short of expectations. MLS doesn't get more airtime because networks can put something else on with lower production costs and get higher ratings. I could even make a case that the number could be lower. Let's say there are 320M people in the U.S., with an adult population of 240M (75%). Polls have shown that 60% are sports fans (144M). So if 7% of American sports fans say that soccer is their favorite sport, that would come out to 10.08M. Let's say that MLS broadcasts average 300K, that would mean that right around 3% of Americans that call soccer their favorite sport typically watch MLS. Obviously soccer fans are watching soccer somewhere, just not MLS. Let's say that the MLS Cup has an audience of 2M, that still only puts the viewing audience of those that call soccer their favorite sport around 20%. Every other sport crushes these statistics and have more viewers for their finals than what the percentages would indicate. Basketball is cited by 11% of people as their favorite sport which would come in at 15.8M. Basketball finals are averaging between 18-20M the last several years. Baseball's popularity is at its lowest ever recorded (9%), with the oldest fanbase of all the major sports. That would put their base at 12.9M. World Series typically average at least 16M. Hockey's base is at 4%, which translates to 5.8M American fans. The Stanley Cup Finals averaged between 4-6M viewers the last several years. If any sports events should bring in crossover viewers, it should be the finals of a sport, but the MLS Cup can't even bring in soccer's biggest fans. A one-off final should also theoretically have better ratings than a series, since a single game championship holds more value.
Look we get it your whole point of posting is to minimize MLS. From trying to make a argument in favor of WNBA being on the same level ITS NOT. Down to the old Europhile fall back of Americans like soccer just not MLS which has been shown to be foolishly incorrect. If what you believe is true Every soccer league of higher quality would be more popular than MLS in the US which isn't the case and the only two leagues in the US more popular is a English speaking league regarded by most Americans as the best league in the world (EPL) and the other Liga MX which happens to be the most watched league in the US and also happens to be a spanish speaking league with a large component of soccer crazy Mexican-American transplants and US born fans. Those are the two leagues that Americans care the most about there are no others beside MLS, despite the myth that Eurocentric American soccer fans like to tell. As far as the numbers I agree about your hypothesis that expansion has caused the gains we've had since 2012-2018 that along with a boon from the 2014 WC. As far as the other statements you made for MLS I fail to understand your thought process honestly. MLS simply isn't more popular yet for two reasons and beyond those two reasons nothing short of acquiring the best world players and TIME will fix that. 1. MLS hasn't been around enough to develop a generational loyal following. Now when I say that I'm not talking about when people say but soccer has been in America since the late 60's what about NASL. I'm talking about MLS, the league that is currently our top flight league in soccer now. We are now just entering the second generation of MLS fans people like me who are 34 in their mid 30s with a 12 yr old who watches EPL but loves MLS and watches every weekend in season. Every other US league is 4-5 generations deep in brand loyalty and here we are a generation in half in. This reason is why Liga MX is the most watch league because of mexican-americans soccer-centric culture and generational loyalty. 2. MLS doesn't have the best/ most famous players in he world. I expect as 24 team MLS grows to the announced 30 and evitable 32 teams over the next 6 yrs we'll see more of that "small" growth as you called it. That combined with more money being invested into the domestic league thru TV and other sponsor money can and will expedite growth. BTW The whole subsidy National vs MLS rift anti MLS Pro/Rel people like to riff about is a nice talking point but lacks much data to back it up especially when you look at the numbers. 1. MLS ratings though down so far this year have increased across cable since the TV deal was announced in 2014 going from 200k to 276k last year. 2. MLS value is in the inventory of games to the networks each year. There are 414 MLS matches this season that number will grow by 17 games with each new MLS team and will be at 544 games a year by the time MLS expands to 32 teams. About 88 of those 414 games are televised and the remaining 300+ games are carried via ESPN+ On the flip side The US Men’s and Women’s teams each only play 10 to 15 games a year thats 20 to 30 games a year tops. The Mens teams only played 8 and 9 games in 2015& 2018. The once every 4 years World Cup is what really earn USSF their share of the deal. There just simply isn’t this unfair disparity or advantage like some want to claim. A 20-25% rate split of the TV deal that USSF gets seems more than fair.
Its probably Unique viewers which is good for Twitter they like that metric. For us we are concerned with the AMA= average viewers minute. There have been Twitter Games with 25k watching so compared to that 3k is on the smaller side.
The WNBA TV contract isn't bundled with a national team. Instead it's bundled with a little thing called the NBA. In a four year cycle, the national team TV contract consists of the men's home World Cup qualifiers and a whole bunch of friendlies that give the networks little more than programming filler. It doesn't include the World Cups, Gold Cups, Olympics, nor anything else that draws major attention. There's pretty much one game (home WCQ vs. Mexico) that moves the ratings needle in any meaningful way.
Not anymore. The WNBA negotiated its own deal for the first time this year and is on CBS Sports Network for the foreseeable future.
They still have the ESPN deal though worked though the NBA. I hope they make it but it will be a tough go over on CBSSN. ESPN just wasn't giving them enough exposure, they needed to bring in another network to at least drive a market for future TV negotiations when the ESPN deal runs out. I'm not sure if they got anything out of the CBSSN deal as far as money as it wasn't announced . I'm not sure what happened but ESPN must of told them they weren't getting as many games on tv maybe ESPN+and they made the option to add another network to show more of their games.
Interesting. They supposedly have the CBSSN deal, but they're so inept that the WNBA website doesn't have those 40 games on their National TV schedule page.
The friendly fillers average more than an MLS match, so what does that make MLS matches? What an utterly weird statement.
The point is that the friendlies aren't such a big deal that the networks would take on all the MLS inventory against their will as a necessary evil to get the friendlies. They have MLS because they want it.