The 2019 MLS TV thread

Discussion in 'MLS: News & Analysis' started by POdinCowtown, Dec 19, 2018.

  1. DBR70

    DBR70 Member

    Sep 29, 2015
    I have zero issues with ESPN+ with appletv
     
    USSoccerNova repped this.
  2. PTFC in KCMO

    PTFC in KCMO Member+

    Aug 12, 2012
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    I have never had an issue with espn+ on my Roku

    Never had an issue with it on my phone

    Never had an issue on the computer

    Never had an issue on my tablet.
     
    DBR70 repped this.
  3. AeroNaught

    AeroNaught Member+

    Atlanta United
    Feb 14, 2007
    Birmingham, AL
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I don't have an issue with the actual app and playing videos, just an issue with the lack of features like hiding scores or being able to resume where you left off. Content available is amazing and the quality of the video is good, they just need some major improvements to how it's being delivered and consumed.
     
    Q*bert Jones III repped this.
  4. Q*bert Jones III

    Q*bert Jones III The People's Poet

    Feb 12, 2005
    Woodstock, NY
    Club:
    DC United
    #904 Q*bert Jones III, Nov 6, 2019
    Last edited: Nov 6, 2019
    Seriously, how hard would it be to simply have a searchable "Replays" page with no spoilers?
     
    superdave and NashSC repped this.
  5. Matt Hall

    Matt Hall Member+

    Sep 26, 2012
    Club:
    Philadelphia Union
    This isn't correct. The 0.8 rating for Birmingham means that 2 out of ~249 Neilsen households in the area watched this game. The standard error on the binomial distribution, assuming 0.8 is the true pop rate, is 1.4 households. Or put another way, you could see 2 households tuning in when the "true" rating is actually only 0.3 over 5% of the time.

    Or put another way, the error bar is large on this estimate, and it's totally fair to wonder whether there is non-random sampling of Nielsen households
     
  6. The Marquis

    The Marquis Moderator
    Staff Member

    Aug 13, 2007
    Washougal, WA
    Club:
    Portland Timbers
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yeah, please bring this back to soccer.
     
  7. eddygee

    eddygee Member+

    DC United
    May 12, 2007
    Moco, Maryland
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yes the skeptic in me often wonders this as well, as sometime you'll see the same viewing figure pop up several times during a MLS Season. For example a game will hit on a 269k rating a 2-3 times during the year. Is it really that in the strange happenstance of the Universe that exactly 269,000 viewers just all happen and decided to watch a MLS game not once but two or three times? Of course not. More than likely there is unintentional sample bias, which points to the past major flaw in Nielsen ratings.

    With this said the inclusion of OOH viewership rolled in with the Linear TV number into 1 big number should greatly diminish that kind of statistical noise and give a not flawless, but truer representation of a broadcast/cable media audience size.
     
  8. NaBUru38

    NaBUru38 Member+

    Mar 8, 2016
    Las Canteras, Uruguay
    Club:
    Club Nacional de Football
    Is this the first time that Univisión will air the MLS Cup FInal, rather than UniMás or UDN?
     
  9. RfrancisR

    RfrancisR Member+

    Aug 7, 2006
    New Orleans Diaspora
    No.
     
  10. newtex

    newtex Member+

    May 25, 2005
    Houston
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    I didn't think so but it might be.

    MLS is saying that this is the first year to have ABC and Univision both carry the game.

    EDIT: That article says: "For the first time in league history, MLS Cup will air domestically in the U.S. on both the ABC Television Network and Univision Network, and in Canada on TSN and TVA Sports."
    I misread that at first. I guess it could have been on ABC and Univision back in the day but not also on the Canadian networks.

    https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2019/08/28/2019-mls-cup-air-live-abc-and-univision

    ABC had the Cup from 1996-2008 before it switched over to ESPN. Maybe Univision also had it in that period.

    As far as I can tell TeleFutura (now UniMas) had the game in 2007 and 2008. Galavision had it 2009-2011, and UniMas has had it since then.

    Does someone have evidence that the Cup was carried on Univision?
     
    Stupid_American and eddygee repped this.
  11. FoxBoro 143

    FoxBoro 143 Member+

    Jan 18, 2004
    MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm pretty sure I remember it being on Telemundo OTA back in the earlier years at least once.
     
  12. newtex

    newtex Member+

    May 25, 2005
    Houston
    Club:
    Houston Dynamo
    Telemundo had MLS Spanish language rights in 2000 and 2001. Maybe they broadcast MLS Cup but I don't find any evidence of that.
     
  13. Stupid_American

    Stupid_American Member+

    Jan 8, 2003
    New York, NY
    Club:
    Columbus Crew
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    In the latest "Front Office Sports" newsletter (which is proving to be a good resource for MLS biz news), there's an article on the ticket prices and TV ratings for this year's MLS Cup Playoffs.

    URL: https://mailchi.mp/frntofficesport.com/mls-playoffs-growth

    A few excerpts on the TV side:
    • ESPN’s audience for the 2019 MLS Cup playoffs is up 36% year-over-year, with the four single-elimination matches on ESPN and ESPN2 averaged 388,000 viewers. That is up from 286,000 viewers in seven matchups in 2018. That marks ESPN’s most-viewed MLS Cup playoffs since 2012 when it averaged 392,000 viewers.
    • Viewership on ESPN Deportes was also up 226% versus 2018. The combined audience of 961,000 viewers on ESPN and ESPN Deportes for the LAFC-LA Galaxy match on October 24 makes it the highest ESPN telecast in 20 years.
    • Viewership on Fox Sports 1 for the Atlanta United versus Toronto was up 42% vs 2018 – this marked the highest playoff broadcast on Fox Sports 1.
     
    STR1 repped this.
  14. ThreeApples

    ThreeApples Member+

    Jul 28, 1999
    Smurf Village
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    One thing this indicates is that making the middle two rounds midweek even though there were perfectly available weekends was a successful choice for television purposes. Last year 9 out of 12 games in the conference semifinal and final rounds were on weekends. I would personally prefer having the four playoff rounds on four consecutive weekends, but it seems to make business sense to avoid the college football and NFL TV competition.
     
    Stupid_American and eddygee repped this.
  15. Paul Berry

    Paul Berry Member+

    Notts County and NYCFC
    United States
    Apr 18, 2015
    Nr Kingston NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Not MLS but the EPL had better enjoy its heyday.

    Sky Network Television has written down the value of large parts of its business and scrapped paying a dividend as it changes direction to counter falling pay TV subscribers.

    The company shed more satellite pay TV subscribers but gained some on its other subscription services. Photo: 123RF

    The pay TV operator reported a net loss of $607.8 million for the June year compared with last year‘s loss of $240m.

    Sky said it would take $670m in write-offs in the value of assets, and the costs of a now scrapped technology project.
     
  16. RfrancisR

    RfrancisR Member+

    Aug 7, 2006
    New Orleans Diaspora
    Off of TV Ratings specifically, but Forbes has put out its latest valuations and revenue estimates for MLS teams. In 2018 MLS teams generated a total $816m before SUM distributions of $125 league wide. Meaning that average MLS investor/operator including SUM distribution had $40.9 million in revenue in 2018.

    Adjusted for 24 teams this year and assuming no revenue growth from 2018-2019 on a per team basis, MLS is closing in on being a $1b a year operation with $982m in total revenues.

    Assuming that the 6.2% per team revenue growth from 2017 to 2018 continued to 2019, MLS/SUM has cracked the $1 billion mark at $1,042,000,000. That would mean that per team revenues including SUM distribution actually stands at $43.45m per team. If salaries were a mere 30% of average per team revenues they would be placed at $13m per team next season.

    Actual gross MLS/SUM revenues for 2018 was $1.166b according to the Forbes article (source: math).

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/chriss...xpansion-fees-sale-prices-surge/#20cf340351b5
     
    Dirt McGirt and GunnerJacket repped this.
  17. DCYC

    DCYC Member

    Chivas, DC United, Reno 1868
    Mar 24, 2010
    Reno, NV
    Club:
    CD Chivas de Guadalajara
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    #917 DCYC, Nov 9, 2019
    Last edited: Nov 9, 2019
    We all know popular vote was not going to decide the winner.

    So either the trustworthy pollsters got their methods wrong (which is my point)

    Or they did not make a realistic, quality poll.

    Either way my argument is right.

    I will just close with the fact that I don't get political, I was just trying to show how measurements we trust so much can be wrong... by far sometimes.
     
  18. DCYC

    DCYC Member

    Chivas, DC United, Reno 1868
    Mar 24, 2010
    Reno, NV
    Club:
    CD Chivas de Guadalajara
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    you are totally right, I overestimated the number of possible households. So the chance the sampling is the key in the measurement becomes bigger.
     
  19. DCYC

    DCYC Member

    Chivas, DC United, Reno 1868
    Mar 24, 2010
    Reno, NV
    Club:
    CD Chivas de Guadalajara
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    That is, exactly, my question/concern. is it the best metric we have? yes. Is it great? no. Is it good? mmm maybe? is it doubtful? for sure.
     
  20. crookeddy

    crookeddy Member+

    Apr 27, 2004
    Soccer coverage in the us has come a very long way. On abc, they stay with the trophy presentation, they discuss the game, including mentioning that it wasn't the best game ever, they don't compare to other sports. It was presented the same way any other major championship would be. Awesome!!
     
    STR1 and AZUL GALAXY repped this.
  21. Paul Berry

    Paul Berry Member+

    Notts County and NYCFC
    United States
    Apr 18, 2015
    Nr Kingston NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    MLS Cup final had 1.27 million across ABC, Univision and TUDN combined - WST
     
  22. crookeddy

    crookeddy Member+

    Apr 27, 2004
    That seems... really bad, considering the channels involved?
     
  23. crookeddy

    crookeddy Member+

    Apr 27, 2004
    What the...

    WST:
    I thought ESPN was up... so who is disappointed with the overall numbers? Maybe FS1... Spanish language was CERTAINLY not disappointing.
     
  24. FoxBoro 143

    FoxBoro 143 Member+

    Jan 18, 2004
    MA
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Yikes.
     
  25. ThreeApples

    ThreeApples Member+

    Jul 28, 1999
    Smurf Village
    Club:
    San Jose Earthquakes
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Primetime Saturday night after college football is over vs. Sunday afternoon overlapping both NFL daytime timeslots. Plus only one US local market audience..

    Spanish audience increased 100%, though?
     

Share This Page