Goal.com's Seth Vertelney got his hands on a summary of the 2017 regular season rating(s) across the three broadcast partners. Here are the key bullet points: ESPN: Viewership on ESPN and ESPN2 combined was slightly down in 2017. MLS matches on ESPN and ESPN2 averaged 272,000 viewers in 2017, compared to 274,000 in 2016. Fox: Fox and Fox Sports 1 combined to average a five percent increase in viewership in 2017 (236,000 average viewers in 2017 versus 224,000 in 2016). Univision: The league’s Spanish-language partner showed a five percent growth on numbers from matches on Univision and UniMas combined (265,000 in 2017 versus 252,000 in 2016). Overall, the 2017 MLS regular season delivered 26.3 million gross viewers across all U.S. networks, up four percent versus 2016. Here's the URL if you want to check out the full article (which goes into a little detail about how MLS ratings fit into the broader sports broadcast landscape).
This is a nice link, thanks. Does anyone else have a link to numbers published in 2016 which match those? I want to compare 2016 to 2015 and get a better trend, but I can't seem to find anything which has the same 2016 numbers. If we could get 5-10% growth going forward (maybe more spending will help?) it would really help the next round of contract negotiations, especially if other sports leagues are seeing 5-10% declines.
I posted this earlier in the thread: The table doesn't contain Univision numbers, but it'll at least give you a sense of what the landscape has looked like since 2009 on the English-language networks. It's also hard to get the gross numbers. Anyway, if you really want to dive in to historical data we've compiled, there are more detailed breakdowns of year-to-year ratings in the past year versions of this thread we've maintained on this site. You can access earlier season data using the link in the first post of this thread (and the first post in each subsequent year's thread).
In an era where ratings decline every year on average, that's nothing to sneeze at (most scripted television is happy if their season premier gets demo ratings equal to the prior year's season finale and know it will drop off after that).
I don't follow this thread very closely, so this may already be common knowledge, but do the above numbers include streaming viewership?
In that case, it suggests that non-stadium MLS viewership is likely increasing overall, presumably among key demographics especially. That's promising.
Two notable things. For the current size of the league the TV market seems to have stablized the last 3 yrs; no more of ratings numbers going up and down by 15-25% each year like you saw from 09-14. Secondly the growth of the secondary broadcast network has been good for the league and has helped the league get seen by more eyeballs. These developments are good things for broadcasters and future TV deals; as steady numbers show a established market for MLS teams. Ratings will assuredly increase incrementally with each expanded market being brought into the fold. If Fox TV numbers can continually traject to ESPN numbers that bolds well for a possible 50-50 split in the next TV deal between ESPN and FOX. Currently ESPN pays 45 mil to FOX 30 mil. while Univision pays only 15 million. The next big growth domestically in TV revenue is getting all three US broadcast partners paying a similar share for each new TV deal.
This table is very good and thanks for posting it, but the numbers don't match up. If you put the 2016 numbers for 2016 in the new numbers, it is a ratings decline. :-(
That's a common issue with Nielsen numbers. They're corrected and amended (often) several times subsequent to the posting of initial numbers. We also never get a complete set of single data points to verify things on our own. I'm not going to pretend to know which ones are accurate. I'm assuming the ones Seth Vertelney got are the most accurate for 2016 figures, but it's hard to know for sure.
While the primary tv ratings have been flat, the secondary English ratings have shows a good improvement (from a low base).
Before primary English (NBC) and Spanish paid about 8-12 million per year. The last TV deal saw the English rights go much higher. Probably due to competitive bids. Univision is king and Lord in Spanish language tv. They can bid the most and probably nobody is willing to pay more than they do. Now NBC/Telemundo may make a run, but I would not bet on it. BeInsports ñ may bid, but their distribution is much smaller than Univision over the air or UDN.
This article is behind a paywall (and, unfortunately, I no longer have a subscription), but some subscribers are saying the following piece of information was included: Per ESPN's Senior VP of programming, MLS broadcasts saw an 18% increase for "out of home viewing" (on top of the standard Nielsen ratings). Apparently, ESPN has generally seen a 7% up-tick on "out of home viewing" annually for all its sports programming, so MLS is likely out-performing in that sphere. LINK: https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2017/11/20/Leagues-and-Governing-Bodies/MLS.aspx
Not sure what game. Really good number for #MLS Cup Playoff game on ESPN sat night. 419k viewers.— Kartik Krishnaiyer 🇺🇦🌻⚽️ (@kkfla737) November 22, 2017
Probably mistyped the tweet and intended to say 'last night'. Last and sat share 3 letters in different order. An easy typo to make.
Folks looking to chat about the NFL ratings decline and reasons why that might be, here's where your posts are.
TV: Viewerships for MLS playoffs on ESPN, ESPN2 and FS1 combined are up 18 percent. https://t.co/jJPCkefPVe @pkedit— SoccerAmerica (@socceramerica) November 27, 2017 View attachment 115824 View attachment 115825
Not TV, but something MLS has over at least NHL. The @nba was the league most people (53%) would want their company to sponsor, according to SBJ readership survey. #NFL 26%#sportsbiz pic.twitter.com/zrTkzI0ysA— Windy Dees (@getDeestweets) November 27, 2017
USOC can't possibly what we think of when we see those initials (US Open Cup.) Any idea what it DOES mean?