For me that is normal, if you want to see in USA & CANADA tha best quality games live in the stadium is MLS. but for TV is not.
Just found a little something: 118k people watched the 12 Impact games on RDS - a national French-language network, but that's probably 95% Québec viewers. http://www.lapresse.ca/debats/chron...yberpresse_B40_chroniques_373582_accueil_POS2
Yea but people watch college sports, and that's not the highest level. so it's more about getting a larger following with an emotional investment in the success or failure of the team.
I don't think ratings are so much an MLS problem but a soccer problem. Outside of a legion of fans, it's not taken seriously as spectator entertainment (World Cup aside). To me, it's not dissimilar to hockey outside of traditional snow country and certain key markets. Hockey has more cache though due to it being longer established.
I respectfully disagree. The problem is that 80% of people who say that they are hockey fans will watch Stanley Cup Finals (at least some). I would say that only about 5% of people who believe they are soccer fans watch MLS Cup Final and I think I am being generous.
EuroSnob (EPL & Champs League) ratings do better than MLS ratings, so its not an issue with the actual sport of soccer, its convincing the EuroSnobs to watch MLS matches as well.
Well it's interesting. Hockey's national ratings are hardly anything to laud compared to basketball or baseball. Last years NHL ratings averaged around a million and a half viewers for the regular season, while the other two can often get 3 times that. Conversely, hockey can get massive local ratings in certain markets. I doubt soccer ratings will ever be so regionally biased. But both MLS and EPL are ranking in the hundreds of thousands with the exception of certain matches like the Manchester Derby and FOX over the air telecasts. I think if MLS was able to garner NHL type ratings it'd be a signifiganct achievement. EPL gaining the same thing would be as well, more so due to time slots than attraction. But then again, if Spongebob can get 1 million people to watch TV at 9am on saturday, concievably a high class EPL match could too on NBC I'd wager.
If EPL was on at primetime it would smash. Around a million viewers everytime. (since it would be the big teams...not swansea and stoke unfortunately but they would get 400k or something)
On average, across a full season of all games that are televised, is that statement actually supported by the (available and limited) data as to how many US households/people are watching which brands/leagues of soccer content?
English Premier League Down Slightly on ESPN2, ESPN Deportes: Coverage of the English Premier League has averaged a 0.22 U.S. rating and 302,000 viewers on ESPN2 this season AT 745 AM AND 10 AM. Its down from 325,000 a game last season. Imagine MLS on at 745 AM....what kind of rating would it get?
In related MLS tv news.... NBC Sports Network Not Lighting Up the Ratings: The newly rebranded NBC Sports Network averaged just 62,000 viewers per day in January, according to Sports Business Journal, down 21% from January of last year (78K). Corporate sibling The Golf Channel averaged more viewers during the month (81K), as did ESPNews (74K), NBA TV (88K), NFL Network (126K), and Speed Channel (142K). (Sports Business Journal)
Possibly true. But even 10pm local time kickoffs ( in the Spanish style) will never happen. Because of local custom, and serious "health and safety" issues. And obviously the impact on the sweet sweet Asian TV market.
what??? no no. EPL will never go that late. thats ok too. waking up early isnt a big deal to football fans. I am up now ready to see if this game is even going to be played at 11 am my time. may postpone it with this nasty weather in london.
You realize that this data is from last January(2012) not this January? This years January is probably going to go down due to little NHL games. I am not sure how this snippet relates to MLS as you said as there are no MLS games on in January. It probably more relates to EPL since they will be on NBCSN next January.
It works both ways. Imagine what the EPL would do up against a full slate of College Football games. There are multiple factors in play here, not just time of day. Sure the EPL games have a bad slot but they have zero sporting competition. I think you need to acknowledge not only the time slot differences, but the massive competition differences as well.
It might not increase all that much. I'm not sure how many "casual" fans are watching either league, rather I think it's a limited pool of soccer fans who are seeking out these telecasts. The lead in undoubtedly matters, but the difference between the EPL audience and the MLS audience may not be as big as some have suggested. Recent research suggests that half of the EPL audience is watching MLS too: http://espn.go.com/sports/soccer/story/_/id/8194367/mls-hopes-build-national-profile-roger-bennett
I don't think that this changes the poin I was trying to gt across. Also, The Winter Classic is on NBC and not all final games are on that channel
No it doesn't. The Stanley Cup games on NBC have outdrawn the winter classic over the last few years when comparing apples to apples. The winter classic is typically the highest rated game during the regular season though. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratings_for_The_NHL_on_NBC http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/20...-million-viewers-down-34-vs-last-year/138091/ http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/201...iewership-down-on-nbc-and-nbc-sports-network/
Just to be clear, it is only the NBC regular season games that averaged 1.5 million viewers last year for the NHL. The regular season games on NBCSN averaged about 330k viewers.
This is the 2nd year in a row that EPL ratings have declined. Maybe people are getting bored of it; the hype is wearing off. At some point, people are gonna want to watch teams closer to home (aka MLS).
It's not the best comparison point because you are comparing a mid season number with an end of season number. Last year the EPL drew its highest ratings in the second half of the year which included their all time highest number of cable viewers at 1.033 million for the Man City Man United show down last May.
The NHL return on NBC scored 2.0. By comparison, an MLS regular season game scored a .4 on the same channel. As to the EPL jump, rumors are that - OK, follow this chain of events - if Victor Valdez quits Barcelona, as he is promising, Barcelona will go for Liverpool's Pepe Reina while Liverpool will in turn go for Memo Ochoa, currently with Ajaccio. Of course, then I wonder why Barcelona wouldn't just buy Thibaut Courtois. However, the point being is that Memo and Chicharito in the EPL would be a rating bonanza for Telemundo.