TV ratings for sports other than hockey

[jkrdevil]

It was funny a few years ago hearing MLS fans say that the league was gonna get a contract on par with the NHL. Then this streaming exclusive deal happened, most of us thinking the MLS took the bag at the expense of product exposure/awareness. Only to be told that the incredibly small ratings were a smoke screen cuz "most/half the audience is watching on Apple"



So for this article to come out what, 2-3 years after the deal was signed is some pretty damning evidence that we were right (and eddygee and the like were wrong, again)

I don’t think a primary streaming deal was necessarily the death knell the Apple TV deal looks like. The problem is they signed a deal with a service that has no other sports and that is on a premium tier within it. Also, there are no exclusives for the over the air broadcaster (Fox) and a lot of their big events that a league would normally want on broadcast or cable are behind the inner paywall.

A deal with ESPN+, Peacock or Paramount Plus on a regular subscription tier with key events reserved for a linear broadcaster would have been fine.

 

[Anisimovs AK]

I don’t think a primary streaming deal was necessarily the death knell the Apple TV deal looks like. The problem is they signed a deal with a service that has no other sports and that is on a premium tier within it. Also, there are no exclusives for the over the air broadcaster (Fox) and a lot of their big events that a league would normally want on broadcast or cable are behind the inner paywall.

A deal with ESPN+, Peacock or Paramount Plus on a regular subscription tier with key events reserved for a linear broadcaster would have been fine.

Im not criticizing having a streaming element. Im criticizing going streaming exclusive.

Of course having a streaming element while still having linear exclusive events would be smart, every major sports league (and Nascar) all do that, Im saying the league would not have received the same money for that kind of deal though, and thus were very shortsighted to take the streaming cash grab instead of a more balanced distribution between streaming and linear.

My favorite sport (Indycar) consistently chooses exposure over a bigger payday, to the chagrin of most fans that want a bigger schedule (only 17 races compared to Nascar's 36 and F1's 24)

However, its necessary for the viability of every event outside of the Indy 500

 

[varsaku]

Im not criticizing having a streaming element. Im criticizing going streaming exclusive.

Of course having a streaming element while still having linear exclusive events would be smart, every major sports league (and Nascar) all do that, Im saying the league would not have received the same money for that kind of deal though, and thus were very shortsighted to take the streaming cash grab instead of a more balanced distribution between streaming and linear.

My favorite sport (Indycar) consistently chooses exposure over a bigger payday, to the chagrin of most fans that want a bigger schedule (only 17 races compared to Nascar's 36 and F1's 24)

However, its necessary for the viability of every event outside of the Indy 500

A streaming exclusive deal was needed. Majority of teams were either on RSNs not widely available in their local areas or were barely making much in those RSNs deals. As a result, they weren't able to get the product out to both casual and fans who follow the league closely. This atleast allows people who follow the league closely to be able to view games. Unfortunately the downside is casual fans are unable to view the occasional game.

 

[Anisimovs AK]

A streaming exclusive deal was needed. Majority of teams were either on RSNs not widely available in their local areas or were barely making much in those RSNs deals. As a result, they weren't able to get the product out to both casual and fans who follow the league closely. This atleast allows people who follow the league closely to be able to view games. Unfortunately the downside is casual fans are unable to view the occasional game.

By "occasional game" you actually mean "all of the games", correct? Because every single Crew game is behind a paywall

 

[End of Line]

Army-Navy tops nine million, cruising past previous high

The Army-Navy Game hit a new high, comfortably surpassing the old mark by a million viewers. The annual Army-Navy Game averaged 9.4 million viewers on CBS

www.sportsmediawatch.com

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Cup half empty or half full: Bucks-Thunder decent, but down big

The NBA Cup final was no match for last year, but still delivered one of the top audiences in a soft early season.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Tuesday’s Bucks-Thunder NBA Cup Final averaged a 1.75 rating and 2.99 million viewers on ABC, down 29% in ratings and 35% in viewership from last year’s Pacers-Lakers final (2.5, 4.58M), but still the second-largest audience of the NBA season. Knicks-Celtics on Opening Night had 3.01 million.

Last season, both Bucks-Thunder games aired on NBA TV and averaged under 400,000 viewers. The last time the teams met on ESPN/ABC or TNT was a February 2020 matchup on ESPN that drew 1.12 million. Milwaukee’s comfortable win was a much healthier draw than the semifinals on Saturday. Rockets-Thunder averaged a 1.1 and 1.89 million on ABC, down 15% and 13% respectively from Pelicans-Lakers on TNT last year (1.3, 2.17M), a decline that seems reasonably modest until one factors in that last year’s game was a 44-point Laker rout that aired opposite the NFL. One might chalk up the declines to the absence of the Lakers, but Hawks-Bucks on TNT and truTV earlier in the day (1.0M) was down a sharper 37% from Pacers-Bucks last year, which aired in a late afternoon Thursday window on ESPN (1.6M).

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

CFP first round does well despite blowouts, NFL competition

The inaugural opening round of the expanded College Football Playoff delivered some of the top audiences of the current season.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

The new opening round of the College Football Playoff averaged 10.6 million viewers across ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports and delivered two of the three-largest audiences of the season. Tennessee-Ohio State topped the charts with 14.3 million on ESPN and ABC Saturday night, per Nielsen fast-nationals — the second-largest audience of the season, behind only the Georgia-Texas SEC Championship (16.6M). Indiana-Notre Dame averaged 13.4 million on ESPN and ABC the previous night, marking the third-largest audience of the season.

As for the two Saturday afternoon windows that aired on TNT Sports opposite the NFL, Clemson-Texas averaged 8.6 million and SMU-Penn State 6.4 million — the two most-watched cable-exclusive college football games all season. The games also delivered the two largest college football audiences ever on TNT Sports, which prior to this year had not any carried games since 2006. The previous high was 2.8 million for the 1996 Carquest Bowl (currently known as the Pop-Tarts Bowl).

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

Saturday NFL games easily top CFP, as one would expect

A pair of high-profile Saturday NFL games easily dominated competing College Football Playoff games in the television ratings.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

Saturday’s Steelers-Ravens NFL regular season game averaged 15.4 million viewers on FOX, marking the top Nielsen-measured audience of the day, and up from 14.3 million for Bengals-Steelers on NBC in the same window last year. NBC’s Texans-Chiefs lead-in averaged 15.5 million across Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, with a Nielsen-only figure not immediately available.

 

[Greatzsky 99]

Rough night for NBA on TNT opposite NFL​

Thursday’s Thunder-Magic NBA regular season game averaged 562,000 viewers across TNT and truTV, marking the least-watched NBA game on TNT or ESPN/ABC this season. Knicks-Timberwolves followed with a a 0.41 rating and 722,000, the second-least watched.

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

NBA Christmas Day viewership highest in five years

NBA Christmas Day viewership surged over last year's low to rank as the league's best performance on the holiday since 2019.

www.sportsmediawatch.com

The five-game NBA Christmas Day slate averaged 5.25 million viewers across the ESPN family of networks, per Nielsen fast-nationals — up 84% from last year’s record-low (2.85M) and the league’s highest average on the holiday since 2019 (5.34M). Lakers-Warriors led the way with a combined 7.76 million on ABC and ESPN, up six-fold from Sixers-Heat on ESPN alone last year (1.30M) and the largest NBA regular season audience since Clippers-Lakers on Christmas 2019 (8.76M). Sixers-Celtics ranked second for the day with 5.16 million, up 3% from Celtics-Lakers last year, which was the most-watched game of the year-ago Christmas slate. Spurs-Knicks placed third with 4.91 million in the Noon ET window — including a “Dunk the Halls” Mickey Mouse-themed simulcast on ESPN2 — the largest audience for the Noon Christmas game since 2011, when it was the first game of the lockout-delayed season. Timberwolves-Mavericks had 4.38 million in a mid-afternoon window, up 6% from last year, and Nuggets-Suns rounded out the schedule with 3.84 million — the largest audience ever for the late night Christmas window (dates back to 2008).

Keep in mind this year was just the second in which all five Christmas Day games aired on ABC. Compared to the previous such occurrence in 2022, this year’s average increased 22% from 4.30 million. This was also the first year since 2021 in which the NBA faced two, rather than three, competing NFL games. Compared to that year, viewership increased 29% from 4.08 million. Owing to the Christmas Day performance, NBA viewership across ABC, ESPN and TNT this season is now down just four percent, after previously being down 18 percent.

 

[MMC]

 

[Kirk Van Houten]

No mention of global viewership that could've been a fun PR spin to throw at the NBA