Here's a link to back that up: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070529.TRUTH29/TPStory/Sports scroll down to the bottom
I'd rather watch replay of a TFC match then game 7 of the Stanly Cup Finals involving the Ottawa Senators.......eyuuck
Overall: Game 1: vs. Chivas USA - 110,000 or 115,000 (Sportsnet) Game 2: vs. NE - 15,000 (The Score) Game 3: vs. KC - 21,000 (The Score) Game 4: vs. KC - 188,000 (CBC) Game 5: vs. Chicago - 128,000 (CBC) Game 6: vs. Houston - 32,000 (The Score) Game 7: vs. DC – 503,000 (CBC) Game 8: vs. Columbus – 133,000 (CBC) Pretty good so far.. The Score's number are getting better so far.. and CBC is all over the place.. but still too early to see a pattern.. hopefully they will go up..
columbus ratings beat both NBA playoff games; should be a message for sports networks who have been lagged with their TFC coverage - largely non-existent on TSN; Sportsnet game coverage only makes it better against TSN; Score coverage has been reasonable. Compared to the papers, the tv networks are behind the curve
I disagree. You have to throw the DC game out, and once you do that and take the first game curiosity factor out you have two games that basically drew the same number. I think we can reasonably assume that (Galaxy game aside) TFC's number is going to consistently be about 130k. It's fine. It's good enough for CBC to justify doing the games next year I think (they want TFC on to help build a national soccer audience that they can capitalize on with the WC). However, it isn't spectacular, especially when you consider that CBC is a free over-the-air signal (about 32,000,000 Canadians weren't watching the game...). Again, Canaidian university football--a sport most would agree is niche--draws the same or better numbers when its on TV. The reason I'm being Mr. Negative here is because it's important for us to not become deaf from the echo chamber. We are hardcore supporters. We surround ourselves with other hardcore supporters. We are justifiably ecstatic by the success we've seen so far. However, we may mistakingly start to believe that because there are 20k at the stadium every week that TFC is sprung to the top of the Toronto sporting heap. It hasn't. It can continue to grow and to capture the hearts of more of Toronto's sports fans, but only if we, the grassroots, continue to work at spreading the gospel. That won't happen if we convince ourself that the battle has been won. An antidote: I had to work in Kitchener (about 100k west of Toronto) Saturday. Since I didn't have time to get home I rushed to one of the biggest sports bars in the region to watch the game. Arriving at 7:40 I saw 18 TVs. Six had a preview of the UFC card on, six had a rerun of the Floyd Mayweather Jr./Oscar De La Hoya fight on, four had an out-of-market baseball game on, and two were tuned to The Score, which was running highlights (I know this because I counted, realizing that I was likely to share the information on BigSoccer. I have a problem). Now, they didn't have a problem with turning one of the TVs to the game for me, but it was clear that no one at the bar had any idea that there was a game on TV. I had a nice chat with one of the bartenders during the game. He seemed interested in the team, but he was far more interested in whether Ottawa could overcome the Ducks on Monday... For the record I have no doubt that we will continue to work hard at converting the skeptics. Hell, forget giving too much credit to MLSE, WE built this thing. But we still have more building to do.
I tend to agree. TFC will likely average between 125~150,000 viewers per game, with a few bigger games (Beckham) as blips bringing up the average. The 20,000~ average on the Score is indicative of their reach and lower profile among viewers, even casual ones. Any sport shown on CBC gets around 5x the viewers that the Score does - so keep that in mind when comparing 150k watching FC on CBC and 120k watching the Raptors on the Score. That Raptors number - on CBC - still wouldn't be 750,000 (let's face it, too many parts of Canada just don't identify with hoops), but would likely be in the 400,000 range during the regular season. That the Raptors got 400,000+ on the Score during the playoffs (breaking Score ratings) is HUGE and woulda been a million+ had it been available to regular cable and antenna viewers. I grew up in Kitchener and let me tell you, few cities can suck the life out of you faster than Kitchener can, Waterloo and Cambridge (all 450,000) included. I've never been in a bigger place with a smaller mentality. It's hockey first, second and third, then whatever else happens to be exciting at the time - which isn't likely to change. I was once told straight to my face "get the **** out of our country" because our group (all regular looking white people) had ONE TV in the bar on the Raptors game while the other 30 had the Leaf game on and these guys couldn't get a good seat.
CBC needs to broadcast home games in HD. Im assuming they're going to do the U-20 WC in HD as they want to hype up the WC for next year and such. Is it just fundamentally too expensive to broadcast something in HD that doesnt get great ratings? Every Jays home game is in HD; and thats like 90 games. Im certain anybody with an HDTV will watch soccer in HD. Like all sports, it looks amazing in HD. If CBC could work on their shot selection and overall camera work they could put on a hell oh a show. They need to keep a camera on the supporters so they can cut smoothly to them when they start jumping or something.
It's just not as simple as you are making it out to be. Consider this; every major broadcaster in North America is making the transition to HD delivery. Which means they are all looking to purchase high quality (broadcast quality) HD cameras, et al. Most sporting events broadcast in HD use a portable control truck to act as the broadcast control room. These trucks cost literally millions of dollars and there are only a couple of companies (that I know of) in North America that build/sell them. And the millions being spent on the control truck doesn't include all the cameras needed for a major sporting event. I would guess the CBC owns one or two of these that they use for Hockey. It is also possible to rent these trucks from the companies that build them on a per-event basis if needed, but I am guessing the cost is not worth it for TFC games at the moment (from CBC's perspective - HDNet broadcasts a weekly game in pure glorious HD ). Cheers!
CBC owns 2 HD trucks. For the time being, I'd assume one is parked in Anaheim, and the other in Ottawa. I believe they were planning to do some of the U-20 games in HD. Edit: Just checked out CBC's Blue Jay broadcast schedule. All 8 games they are showing will be in HD. Mind you, these are all home games.
Sorry, I don't mean to be picky, just thought you might like to know; the word you are looking for is actually "anecdote". An antidote is used to counteract poison, an anecdote is a short story (detailing an event). Anyway, as to HD, I would love CBC to start doing the TFC games in HD, I don't know if it will happen this season; however, if the viewship grows (and that is honestly on us to spread it word of mouth) I can see them looking into it next season.
Actually, I was talking about how that anecdote would act as an antidote for those that thought that TFC have completely captured the heart of all of the region's sports fans.... OR...yes, thanks...I make that error all the bloody time. At least I'll be good when I have to write about snakes.
I didnt make it out the be simple. I prefaced my entire post by asking "is it just fundamentally too expensive to broadcast something that isnt getting great ratings?"
Basically, from my understanding, I don't think the cost of broadcasting in HD is the pertinant factor, I think it is the cost of infrastructure. If CBC has infinity HD cameras and vans around, I bet TFC would be broadcast in HD. So, that being said, maybe after the stanley cup is over we might get a taste of it.
Overall: Game 1: vs. Chivas USA - 110,000 or 115,000 (Sportsnet) Game 2: vs. NE - 15,000 (The Score) Game 3: vs. KC - 21,000 (The Score) Game 4: vs. KC - 188,000 (CBC) Game 5: vs. Chicago - 128,000 (CBC) Game 6: vs. Houston - 32,000 (The Score) Game 7: vs. DC – 503,000 (CBC) Game 8: vs. Columbus – 133,000 (CBC) Game 9: vs. Colorado - 99,000 (CBC) Game 10: vs. New York - ? (Sportsnet) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070605.TRUTH05/TPStory/TPSports/?query= Don't know what the ratings for the Red Bulls game is yet.
Overall: Game 1: vs. Chivas USA - 110,000 or 115,000 (Sportsnet) Game 2: vs. NE - 15,000 (The Score) Game 3: vs. KC - 21,000 (The Score) Game 4: vs. KC - 188,000 (CBC) Game 5: vs. Chicago - 128,000 (CBC) Game 6: vs. Houston - 32,000 (The Score) Game 7: vs. DC – 503,000 (CBC) Game 8: vs. Columbus – 133,000 (CBC) Game 9: vs. Colorado - 99,000 (CBC) Game 10: vs. New York - ? (Sportsnet) Game 11: vs. FC Dallas - 108,000 (CBC) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070619.TRUTH19/TPStory/TPSports/?query= Nice to see the Gold Cup game drawing well, too bad about the Rugby though.
I think to increase the number all of us 20'000 + fans should leave on our 2 tv's tell our friends and we doubled the numbers
ya..TFC website says its live on East and Pacific. http://toronto.fc.mlsnet.com/news/t...t_id=99613&vkey=news_t280&fext=.jsp&team=t280
Overall: Game 1: vs. Chivas USA - 110,000 or 115,000 (Sportsnet) Game 2: vs. NE - 15,000 (The Score) Game 3: vs. KC - 21,000 (The Score) Game 4: vs. KC - 188,000 (CBC) Game 5: vs. Chicago - 128,000 (CBC) Game 6: vs. Houston - 32,000 (The Score) Game 7: vs. DC – 503,000 (CBC) Game 8: vs. Columbus – 133,000 (CBC) Game 9: vs. Colorado - 99,000 (CBC) Game 10: vs. New York - ? (Sportsnet) Game 11: vs. FC Dallas - 108,000 (CBC) Game 12: vs. NE - 85,000 (Sportsnet) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070626.TRUTH26/TPStory/TPSports/?query= Damn! More people watched volleyball!