Sports TV ratings, etc. Random sports talk

Good number for the tournament, but it shows again that sports coming back will mostly see a moderate gain in volume and then come back down to Earth.

 
The NFL numbers seem to be hovering around 15% down from 2019, which was a recent high point. Definitely holding up better than the rest of the major pro sports, and with audience sizes that dwarf everything else on TV. Then again, baseball / basketball / hockey were airing heavily altered seasons and schedules.
 
Cable news was up something like 120% (3.8M to 8.4M) for the first five nights of the NBA Finals compared to last year's series, so being abnormally close to the peak of an election cycle is a factor to a degree. The NFL experienced declines early in 2016 and then rebounded after the election. Two appearances against Sunday Night Football only hurt as well, in addition to unprecedented competition against the MLB postseason. The sports media market has been as saturated as ever recently and with so much going on outside of sports it's tough sledding for almost everyone.
 


12 million viewers for a game played on a Monday afternoon is a bigger audience than anything else on TV except for all of the other NFL games that air in more desirable time slots.
 
gnomesayin said:


12 million viewers for a game played on a Monday afternoon is a bigger audience than anything else on TV except for all of the other NFL games that air in more desirable time slots.
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I thought Alabama-Georgia would be the first game to finally crack 10M for anything non-NFL since January, but it fell just short, as did NLCS Game 7. If it doesn’t happen with the World Series it likely won’t until mid-December at earliest. It looks like the NFL is gapping itself even further from everything else during the pandemic.
 
Any MMA fans here? I tried searching by thread titles and found nothing so I’ll just drop this here for my fellow MMA fans. Card starts at 2pm(!!!) est today.
 
It was initially reported the league wanted to sign all of its current broadcasters to 100% increases but it looks like Disney is going to escape with only a 30% bump (still the most expensive deal) and enter the Super Bowl rotation.

 
Sounds like ESPN/ABC will get four of the next seven Stanley Cup Finals. Curious to see how much the deal is worth and whether they split with FOX or NBC keeping the other half.

 
They gotta dust this off.





Is this the first time that ESPN / ABC have held rights to all of the big four professional team sports leagues simultaneously? Or that any network has?
 
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gnomesayin said:
They gotta dust this off.





Is this the first time that ESPN / ABC have held rights to all of the big four professional team sports leagues simultaneously? Or that any network has?
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They’re off to a good start, they already announced they’re bringing it back.



I think there was maybe a year or two between them getting the NBA and then the NHL lockout where they had all of them at once, ‘02-‘04ish?
 
Good to see with the NHL. NBC has been awesome and Doc Emrick was the best PxP guy in sports IMO.

Still ESPN and FS1 have basically ignored the NHL on their shows which is absurd. Huge sport with decent ratings that gets no love because of its broadcasting partners
 
Mispeedway15 said:
Good to see with the NHL. NBC has been awesome and Doc Emrick was the best PxP guy in sports IMO.

Still ESPN and FS1 have basically ignored the NHL on their shows which is absurd. Huge sport with decent ratings that gets no love because of its broadcasting partners
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ESPN ramped up NHL coverage a few years ago and has been airing several games on ESPN+ recently.

Sounds like Fox isn't an option NHL is considering. They want NBC to renew.
 
Sounds like FOX might get back in on the NHL after all, with an outside shot at a joint Turner/CBS bid.

 



Sounding more throughout the day like Turner is the likely destination. It's a cruel business. NBC invested majorly in the NHL at its lowest points. They didn't seem to want to play second fiddle to ESPN / Disney.
 
Streaming is the future...lots of rumors of Amazon, Disney, Peacock, Hulu, and Netflix trying to lock up exclusive rights for certain sports (and specific games/events/tournaments) within the next few years. Dedicated streaming (NFL.com, NASCAR.com, etc) is also going to be the eventual outcome once the "cord" is permanently cut and we will all basically have Pay-Per-View sports for a subscription fee as our only option, but that is likely 7+ years out.
 
It’s official now. It’s a bit weird to see that Turner will suddenly have more NHL content than they do NBA content, which is a staple for them and has been for some time.

They're getting simulcast rights on HBO Max which is a big deal. I don’t think linear TV is going away anytime soon but being able to choose between the two is a nice option. Like if in the next deal NBC gave the option to watch NASCAR races on NBC and USA through traditional cable and streaming TV services while also making them available on Peacock Premium.
 
RacerrecaR said:
Streaming is the future...lots of rumors of Amazon, Disney, Peacock, Hulu, and Netflix trying to lock up exclusive rights for certain sports (and specific games/events/tournaments) within the next few years. Dedicated streaming (NFL.com, NASCAR.com, etc) is also going to be the eventual outcome once the "cord" is permanently cut and we will all basically have Pay-Per-View sports for a subscription fee as our only option, but that is likely 7+ years out.
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FLRacingFan said:
It’s official now. It’s a bit weird to see that Turner will suddenly have more NHL content than they do NBA content, which is a staple for them and has been for some time.

They're getting simulcast rights on HBO Max which is a big deal. I don’t think linear TV is going away anytime soon but being able to choose between the two is a nice option. Like if in the next deal NBC gave the option to watch NASCAR races on NBC and USA through traditional cable and streaming TV services while also making them available on Peacock Premium.
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That's what I find funny about IndyCar looking at moving off NBC. Going to CBS Sports would mean their races go to CBS Sports Network and Paramount Plus. Going to ESPN means the races end up on ESPN2 and ESPN+. Streaming is here to stay and I don't know why some sports leagues are hellbent on staying linear only.

Amazon Prime has already locked up exclusive rights for Thursday Night Football, and the rumor is NFL Sunday Ticket will move to ESPN+. Peacock already has a ton of sports programming. ESPN+ has been picking up a lot of exclusive NHL and MLB coverage. The NHL deal with TNT includes HBO Max. And I expect ESPN+ will pick up even more MLB, NHL and NBA coverage in the years ahead given what an absolute disaster Bally Sports has turned out to be.
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
That's what I find funny about IndyCar looking at moving off NBC. Going to CBS Sports would mean their races go to CBS Sports Network and Paramount Plus. Going to ESPN means the races end up on ESPN2 and ESPN+. Streaming is here to stay and I don't know why some sports leagues are hellbent on staying linear only.

Amazon Prime has already locked up exclusive rights for Thursday Night Football, and the rumor is NFL Sunday Ticket will move to ESPN+. Peacock already has a ton of sports programming. ESPN+ has been picking up a lot of exclusive NHL and MLB coverage. The NHL deal with TNT includes HBO Max. And I expect ESPN+ will pick up even more MLB, NHL and NBA coverage in the years ahead given what an absolute disaster Bally Sports has turned out to be.
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I think they want to play up some sense of competition to get the rights fee increase they’re looking for, but I agree staying with NBC makes the most sense right now. Winding up on CBSSN or something would be a death knell.

The sports leagues definitely need to figure out some sort of streaming option for the regional networks because Bally is for sure a disaster. I haven’t been able to see any local teams since October. It’s asinine that the only way you can legally watch them here is going back to cable, especially with attendance still capped.
 
FLRacingFan said:
I think they want to play up some sense of competition to get the rights fee increase they’re looking for, but I agree staying with NBC makes the most sense right now. Winding up on CBSSN or something would be a death knell.

The sports leagues definitely need to figure out some sort of streaming option for the regional networks because Bally is for sure a disaster. I haven’t been able to see any local teams since October. It’s asinine that the only way you can legally watch them here is going back to cable, especially with attendance still capped.
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That app for Bally is TERRIBLE
 
No real need to wonder why the NFL would add the extra teams to the playoffs for the Wildcard Weekend.



Ratings: Chiefs/Steelers Wild Card Game Flirts With 23 Million Viewers​


In the latest TV ratings, NBC’s Sunday night broadcast of the NFL Wild Card game between the Chiefs and Steelers drew 22.7 million total viewers (and a 6.0 demo rating) during primetime, up 6 percent in audience from last year’s comparable Browns/Steelers match-up.

https://tvline.com/2022/01/17/tv-ratings-nfl-wild-card-game-chiefs-steelers-nbc/
 
“The Rock” version of the XFL doesn’t seem to have good branding IMO.

Seattle SeaDragons
Vegas Vipers
San Antonio Brahmas
Arlington Renegades
Houston Roughnecks
St. Louis Battlehawks
Orlando Guardians
DC Defenders

No team in San Diego, “Arlington”, Orlando “Guardians”, “Vegas Vipers”. Just weird what they’re doing.

The USFL comes across as a better league in some ways.
 
In a direct matchup of NFL vs. MLB in two markets, pretty much no one in Houston chose the Texans.

 
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