Surprisingly I get the BTN as part of my package, but I didn't get NBCSN or FSC. Then again, part of the reason I picked up this provider was to grab the BTN at no extra cost. I remember the BTN/Comcast battles really well. It was insane that depending on the house in State College you couldn't watch PSU play a football/hoops game for a year.
Seen this a couple of times. The fact is, Fox is not a co-owner of the Pac 12 Networks. Pac-12 is actually making some folks nervous as they haven't managed to get on DirecTV or Dish just yet (they have agreements with Comcast, Time Warner, Cox, and Bright House), and they're still dealing with AT&T and Verizon. Some of this is just the way the game is played.
So you're saying that ESPN provided hype for an important game in the world's most popular league? I love MLS way more than I love the EPL, but to act as if the EPL isn't going to be more popular or treated as if its more popular than MLS is just silly.
YellowBismark is just channeling Spanish Basketball fans on their anger when NBA highlights are shown more than their local B-ball league on ESPN España.
NBCSN is already on Time Warner basic, no? Or is that just in the norther states? As far as I know, almost all the cable companies in the northern midwest and northeast carry NBCSN as part of the basic package (Comcast, Charter, Time Warner), however in the south, I found that some companies had NBCSN on the "sports" package. Perhaps this has to do with the NHL's northern skewed demographics?
I stand corrected. However, being on Comcast, Time Warner, and Cox is no small matter, considering that those are the dominant cable operators in the major markets throughout the Pac-12's footprint (and everywhere else in America, I guess). With that being the case, I'd say it's only a matter of time before they get a deal with DirecTV. Dish, however, is pretty willing to not carry channels for which they don't get a good deal (see: YES Network), so it wouldn't surprise me if they took a while.
Absolutely. Like I said, this is the way the game is played. BTN had quite the struggle to get wide coverage its first couple of years, but it did eventually happen. Pac 12 is also going to do everything online for those whose TV providers don't have it. But if the product is compelling enough to enough people, yes, surely it will get done eventually. There's nothing like an "everybody makes some more money" scenario to make it all happen.
I get that. My point was that the ESPN hyping of the Premier League and that match probably assisted MU-MC getting the rating it got. I was responding to a post speculating why it got such a good rating compared to MLS.
The way I understand the Big Ten Network is that if you live in a Big Ten state then the station is part of the basic package (like the other RSNs for your area), and if you life outside then it is on an extra cost package. Where I am in Indiana, one cable provider added the BTN right away and the other didn't and once basketball season started the one without the BTN started losing subscribers until they were forced to add the network.
That's usually what gets it done. If you remember, ESPN put Duke/North Carolina on espn2 when it was in its infancy and people lost their minds because they couldn't get the game, but it had the desired effect.
I'd say it's basically the reverse. ESPN isn't run by stooges like everyone here seems to think. They basically know what will rate and what won't, and they hype the former and not the latter.
Yep. I think it's a safe bet that Man City v Man Utd got better ratings than domestic leagues can dream of in dozens of countries all over the world. No need to be overly concerned that one of those countries was the US.
That's great, hopefully people keep watching EPL and head over to our domestic league. How did MLS do? I am trying to find the answer in the thread, but can't see to locate the rating.
All non Galavision ratings are here https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/mls-tv-ratings.1914571/page-40#post-25643105
Man United vs Man City should be compared to the MLS cup, not some random MLS regular season game between two teams that regularly get horrible tv ratings. EPL got 1 million viewers for arguably the biggest game there can be. If the game was in prime time similar to MLS, it would probably get around 1.6-2 million, which isn't drastically higher than the MLS cup. EPL gets a lot more attention but it really isn't that much more popular. Also, EPL will have a younger audience because the games are on during mid-day which means most adults over 30 are at work. Not really a surprise that it's mostly college students watching it.
This is right on, on every level. First, the game was their championship game. Secondly, that would tap a younger audience for no other reason than work. Finally you are correct in that it would not make a huge jump in numbers even in prime time because at some point, your out of EPL/football fans. I will point out; actually viewers was likely much higher than reported (just like every sporting event including MLS) because Nielsen has next to no clue on how to capture group watches. How many folks ducked out of the office and down to the local to watch? I really wish people would realize that when talking about ratings, the viewership number is about useless for sports.
Except that's twice what MLS Cup gets. MLS Cup 2011 got a 0.8 (cable universe, slightly different), while the earlier replay of Chelsea/Liverpool got a 1.5 on Fox. Besides being drop-dead gorgeous, she's really not all that pretty. Neither you nor I know, but I'm going to guess you're over-estimating. As most folks do. And yet, here we are.
http://www.socceramerica.com/article/46343/has-mexicos-superclasico-lost-its-allure.html 1.6 million Is still less than the latest Mexican super clasico, and that was their lowest in many years (max 2007 - 4.2 million). Both teams have been shitty the past few years, but if they ever get good at the same time you could see that game going over 2 million easily. So the EPL is not the most popular soccer league in the USA, the FMF is.
Not sure how I was overestimating since I didn't quote a number. I think most in the industry are well aware of the challenges any rating system has with predicting viewer numbers, particularly with sporting events that attract group watches. That's why the numbers we like to debate are not the same ones used by the industry; or at least they are much lower in level of importance behind commercial ratings, demographic information, etc.
yikes, the ratings for the MLS games last weekend are so far off my prediction. Never really would have expected this. LA/NY on ESPN- 508K viewers Seattle/Union on NBCSN- 96K viewers While the first rating is really good, the 2nd rating was really bad. Seattle and Union both have the highest tv ratings but drew lower than the NBC average. Not sure what happened there.
Here is the compiled data. As always, if anyone has access to the Galavision numbers, please share. Thanks to Twix1138 for this weeks numbers. ================================ 2012 Season NBC Sports Network Game 1: 82k (Dal vs NY). Sunday 3:00pm. 3/11/2012 Game 2: 124/145k (2.5 hour/two hour) (Phi vs Colo) Sunday 4:00pm. 3/18/2012 Game 3: 107k (2.5 hour) (Sea vs Hou) Friday 10:00pm 3/23/2012 Game 4: 76k (DC vs Dal) Friday 7:30pm 3/30/2012 Game 5: 123k (2.5 hour) (LA vs NE) Saturday 11:00pm 3/31/2012 Game 6: 126k/139k (2.5 hour/two hour) (Phi vs Col) Saturday 4:00pm 4/14/2012 Game 7: 79k (2.5 hour) (Chi vs Tor) Saturday 3:30pm 4/21/2012 Game 8: 70k (2.5 hour) (NY vs NE) Saturday 3:30pm 4/28/2012 Game 9: 96k (2.5 hour) (Sea vs Phi) Saturday 4:00pm 5/5/2012 Average (2.5 hour) 98.1k ESPN2 Game 1: 337k (Por vs Phi) Monday 9:30pm 3/12/2012 Game 2: 344k (DC vs NY) Sunday 6:00pm 4/22/2012 Average 341k ESPN Game 1: 217k (NY vs Colo) Sunday 4:00pm 3/25/2012 Game 2: 215k (KC vs LA) Saturday 4:00pm 4/7/2012* Game 3: 508k (LA vs NY) Saturday 8:00pm 5/5/2012 Average 313k *Was moved from ESPN2 to ESPN ============================= 2011 Final TV Rating Averages ESPN: 4 games: 498k ESPN2: 20 games: 267k FSC: 29 games: 71k Galavision: 18 games: 72k
I read "Seattle/Union on NBCSN- 96K viewers " as 963K viewers and nearly shat myself and was ready to ask if you were high. That was one of the higher rated MLS matches in that timeslot for NBCSN. Saturday was a very crowded sports day. NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, NASCAR, MLB and NBA Playoffs (I can't quite recall if they were on during that slot) were on at the same time and of course the match ended moments before NASCAR's delayed GWC and the Kentucky Derby.
That explains Philly's good rating this week. Oh, wait... (Not that I think the Rapids are any type of great draw, but it is interesting to see them at the top in a couple of categories)
The total ESPN/ESPN2 average so far this year is 324k. Last year the total average for both networks was 311k. So, MLS on ESPN/ESPN2 is up 4.2% over last years final average.