Sports TV Business

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of October 14-20

Numbers compiled from a variety of sources, including TV by the Numbers, The Futon Critic, Sports Media Watch, and Son of the Bronx.

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PT Rnk		TD Rnk			Sep Distr. (000)	PT Vwr (000)	LW/LY	TD Vwr (000)	TD HH	TD Vwr LW/LY
1	=	1	=		98852	2681	-5%	1226	0.8	+8%
	=		=		85%	2681	-3%	1226	+4%	-2%
3	=	2	=		98831	633	-8%	299	0.2	-7%
	=		+1		85%	633	+82%	299	-7%	+12%
2	=	3	=		71909	921	-21%	274	0.2	-13%
	=		-1		62%	1266	-12%	377	-13%	-9%
4	=	4	=		89180	269	+22%	143	0.1	+2%
	=		=		77%	298	+101%	159	+12%	+81%
5	=	5	+2		78412	206	+37%	79	0.0	+28%
	+4		+4		68%	260	+348%	100	+37%	+127%
8	+1	6	+2		82736	75	+7%	59	0.0	+5%
	-1		+1		71%	90	+15%	70	+5%	+30%
7	-1	7	+2		75774	80	-29%	58	0.0	+5%
	-1		-2		65%	104	-11%	75	+9%	+3%
6	+1	8	+2		60168	123	+24%	52	0.0	+1%
	-1		-2		52%	202	+7%	86	-0%	-1%
9	-1	9	-4		75568	68	-28%	51	0.0	-27%
	n/a		n/a		65%	89	n/a	66	-43%	n/a
10	=	10	-4		71321	33	-15%	40	0.0	-36%
	-2		-2		62%	46	-39%	55	-44%	+11%

Before last week, only one show in FS1 history had attracted over a million viewers, or had even managed to better that one show’s prelim card. Now there are four. Sure, one of the four was the truck series race from Talladega, but the other was a fairly pedestrian matchup between Washington State and Oregon that aired late at night on the East Coast and outdrew the UFC prelim card it had as a lead-in. Sure, it threatened an upset, but I get the distinct feeling Boise State-Washington could have done better if it happened now, after last week’s Oregon-Washington game. More to the point, the other college football game FS1 aired this week became the fourth most watched college football game in FS1 history, topping every game not mentioned in this paragraph. That game? Texas Tech, admittedly unbeaten and ranked, against then-3-3 West Virginia.

So, did Oregon-Washington also have spillover effects to FS1’s studio shows? The table below compares the daily studio shows I track last week and this week, as well as a few other weekly shows. I tried to filter out the effects of a NASCAR lead-in, which is why Fox NFL Kickoff isn’t on the list. The results? Most studio shows actually went down this week. Monday’s 1 AM Fox Sports Live episode saw a huge jump which could indicate at least some people tuned in after Monday Night Football, but that and the following 2 AM episode were the only two editions to top 100,000 viewers that didn’t have college football or The Ultimate Fighter as a lead-in. 71,000 people saw FSL last Sunday at 11 PM, a big jump from 23,000 the week before, but that fell to 55,000 this week, though 12:30 went up from 50,000 to 60,000 (and 18,000 the week before). It seems clear to me that, two months in, the panel is still a big turn-off.

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

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This isn’t going to be a regular thing, I’m just catching up from the last month or so of sports ratings reports I missed for various reasons. I have zero numbers for anything other than college football or golf from the Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day weekend, so from now on the Top 20 Most-Viewed charts are going to be Top 10 Most-Viewed charts, because even then I’m not completely optimistic that Sunday’s US Open coverage, which had a 1.6 overnight, didn’t sneak in. (Monday’s coverage did get adjusted down two-tenths, though, so maybe it didn’t threaten so much.) This also means the sports ratings highlights are going to be substantially more limited in scope.

Oregon-Washington accomplished its goal, sort of, becoming the second most-watched program in FS1 history, indeed only the second FS1 program to top a million viewers and coming within a hair’s breadth of toppling #1, the UFC card from launch night. But that doesn’t mean Fox didn’t goof up when they moved the game to FS1 to begin with, even after another game involving Oregon against a Washington school also topped a million viewers this past weekend.

As this post explains, moving Oregon-Washington to FS1 wound up costing Fox Stanford-UCLA the following week, another game between ranked teams but one it actually had reason to move to FS1, to clear Fox’s schedule for the uncertainty of when the ALCS game would be on. That game ended up being half of an ABC/ESPN2 reverse mirror instead, and now Fox has to put the Pac-12 on broadcast all four weeks that have yet to be scheduled this season.

At the time the October 12 schedule was finalized, Oregon/Washington pitted #2 v. #15, while Stanford/UCLA pitted #5 against #12. So the average ranking of both games was the same, and Oregon/Washington was a bitter rivalry showcasing the exciting national-title-contending Ducks, but Stanford-UCLA was closer (and thus promised to be a more exciting contest) and would bring in the valuable Los Angeles and Bay Area markets as opposed to the smaller Pacific Northwest markets. So Stanford-UCLA could have had the exact same effect as Oregon-Washington, just a week later, maybe even topping that opening-night UFC card, for reasons other than just propping up the network, and Fox and the Pac-12 had to know at least that last part well before the season, certainly by the point that Fox was considering moving Oregon-Washington to FS1.

And the kicker? Fox needs to build its broadcast network as a college football destination too!

Top 10 Most-Viewed Programs in Fox Sports 1 History (through October 13)

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PT Rnk		TD Rnk			Sep Distr. (000)	PT Vwr (000)	LW/LY	TD Vwr (000)	TD HH	TD Vwr LW/LY
1	=	1	=		98852	2817	-5%	1136	0.8	-9%
	=		=		85%	2817	-13%	1136	-5%	-0%
3	=	2	+1		98831	685	+50%	321	0.2	+14%
	=		+1		85%	685	+59%	321	+10%	+23%
2	=	3	-1		71909	1165	+13%	315	0.2	-10%
	=		-1		62%	1602	+34%	433	-8%	+17%
4	+1	4	+3		89180	221	0%	141	0.1	+37%
	+1		+1		77%	245	+157%	156	+35%	+101%
8	-2	5	+1		75568	94	-53%	69	0.0	-35%
	n/a		n/a		65%	123	n/a	90	-43%	n/a
10	=	6	+2		71321	39	-15%	62	0.0	+3%
	-1		-2		62%	54	-15%	86	+8%	-14%
5	-1	7	-2		78412	150	-49%	62	0.0	-42%
	+2		+1		68%	189	+121%	78	-56%	+51%
9	-2	8	-4		82736	70	-55%	56	0.0	-63%
	-1		=		71%	84	+25%	67	-74%	+36%
6	+2	9	=		75774	113	+31%	55	0.0	-2%
	=		-3		65%	147	+59%	72	+16%	-6%
7	+2	10	=		60168	99	+41%	52	0.0	+35%
	-3		-3		52%	163	-2%	85	+71%	-9%

At least ten different programs in Fuel history topped 200,000 viewers, just about all of them in January 2012 and later. That’s an average of about one every two months. We’re coming up on two months since Fuel was rebranded as FS2, and not only has not one program managed to top 200,000 viewers in that time, there’s not much in the way of prospects for anything to achieve that mark, despite the broader array of programming the rebrand has brought to FS2.

The reason for that? All the UFC programming that previously inhabited FS2 has moved to FS1. FS2 is no longer home to Wednesday UFC cards and European cards – those are now airing on FS1 whenever possible. NASCAR practice and qualifying have attracted decent numbers, as has, surprisingly enough, Australian Rules Football, but the best programming is always going to be on FS1, and combined with FS2’s extremely limited distribution that makes it highly unlikely that anything on FS2 is going to top 200,000 viewers in the near future, though we’ll see what happens with the Big East basketball games being shuffled there.

Does this mean Fox didn’t have enough programming for a second channel at launch? Maybe, maybe not – certainly FS2 was as much as anything about the hope that Fox would eventually have enough inventory to warrant a second channel (as well as being a short-term escape valve). But I can’t help but think all parties would have been better off if, say, Fox Soccer had been rebranded as FS2 and Fuel had become a NASCAR or motorsports-oriented network. Certainly it would have helped quiet the loud complaining from Speed fans.

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

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PT Rnk		TD Rnk			Sep Distr. (000)	PT Vwr (000)	LW/LY	TD Vwr (000)	TD HH	TD Vwr LW/LY
1	=	1	=		98852	2975	-7%	1242	0.8	-4%
	=		=		85%	2975	-18%	1242	-5%	-10%
2	=	2	=		71909	1027	-16%	348	0.2	-1%
	=		+1		62%	1412	+4%	479	-2%	+23%
3	=	3	=		98831	456	-28%	282	0.2	-9%
	=		-1		85%	456	+25%	282	-10%	-1%
7	+2	4	+5		82736	155	+135%	151	0.1	+241%
	+1		+3		71%	185	+177%	181	+317%	+222%
4	+4	5	+3		78412	294	+268%	107	0.1	+69%
	+3		+4		68%	371	+382%	135	+98%	+234%
6	-1	6	-2		75568	202	-5%	105	0.1	+4%
	n/a		n/a		65%	264	n/a	138	+4%	n/a
5	-1	7	-2		89180	221	-16%	103	0.1	+21%
	=		-3		77%	245	+94%	114	+7%	-13%
10	-4	8	-2		71321	46	-69%	60	0.0	-14%
	-6		-3		62%	64	-74%	84	-30%	-46%
8	-1	9	-2		75774	86	-13%	56	0.0	-20%
	-2		-3		65%	112	-1%	73	-39%	-8%
9	+1	10	=		60168	70	+52%	39	0.0	+48%
	=		-2		52%	115	+40%	63		+1%

Surprisingly, FS1 has reversed course on the “Fox Football Daily reair at midnight” experiment. I say surprisingly because FFD has not only beaten Fox Sports Live in the same time slot (although Saturday editions of FSL have done well), but has beaten the first-run airings of FFD they’re re-airing. I don’t see any appreciable improvement in first-run FFD episodes over the course of the experiment, and in fact those first-run airings may have slipped a little this week, which may be a big factor in the reversal of course, but if so not a good reason to do so. Perhaps the folks at Fox saw how they weren’t showing confidence in FSL barely a month out of the gate, perhaps they decided they needed to air FSL as much as possible to get as many eyeballs on it as possible, or maybe it was always a way to goose FSL ratings or get more eyeballs on FFD (in the latter case, it may have backfired).

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

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PT Rnk		TD Rnk			Sep Dist (000)	PT Vwr (000)	LW/LY	TD Vwr (000)	TD HH	TD Vwr LW/LY
1	=	1	=		98,852	3212	-5%	1298	0.9	-1%
	=		=		85%	3212	+2%	1298	-1%	-10%
2	=	2	=		71,909	1226	-12%	351	0.2	-10%
	=		=		62%	1685	-2%	482	-8%	-1%
3	=	3	=		98,831	632	+12%	311	0.2	+1%
	=		=		85%	632	+26%	311	+2%	-4%
5	+3	4	+1		75,568	212	+51%	102	0.1	+4%
	n/a		n/a		65%	277	n/a	133	-3%	n/a
4	+1	5	+1		89,180	263	+31%	85	0.1	-3%
	+2		-1		77%	292	+71%	94	+15%	-6%
6	=	6	+3		71,321	149	-24%	70	0.0	-5%
	-2		=		62%	207	-28%	98	+1%	-2%
7	-3	7	+1		75,774	99	-52%	70	0.0	-15%
	=		=		65%	129	-18%	92	-24%	+1%
8	+1	8	-1		78,412	80	+25%	63	0.0	-27%
	=		=		68%	101	-1%	80	-34%	+59%
9	-2	9	-5		82,736	66	-62%	44	0.0	-71%
	-4		-4		71%	79	-62%	53	-77%	-48%
10	=	10	=		60,168	46	-22%	26	0.0	-1%
	-1		-1		52%	76	+10%	43	-76%	+4%

I’ve changed the look of the chart at right again to incorporate the year-ago numbers, but I’m not quite sure about how it looks. The layout is fine, but you might see me tinker with the border arrangements for the next few installments. I’m also not sure whether or not the chart is now so wide that it would be better for me to put it in the normal sequence rather than stashed off to the side; on some resolutions that may already have been the case.

The distribution numbers are okay now, but in the future they’re likely to be a month or even two behind because they’re coming from Sports Business Daily and, like their ratings reports, they’re behind the paywall for the first month. The numbers in gray below the raw numbers are the “ESPN-sized distribution” numbers. The comparisons are to last week on the top row and last year on the bottom row; the gray year-ago comparisons for FS1 indicate that they’re being compared to Speed, and the same would be the case for FS2 and Fuel if it ever makes the top 10 before August 2014 (ha!). The household ratings are compared just to last week below the raw number so I don’t have to go back and calculate it for every network (and at this point in time I’d only be able to make those comparisons for ESPN and ESPN2).

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

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Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of September 9-15: Dos a Cero Edition

You may notice the numbers for Monday and Thursday Night Football are different from what you might see reported in other places. Well, remember that those games are aired on local stations in the local markets, and so the most accurate counts for those games, at least for the purposes for which I keep track of these things, would include those stations. As it happens, Nielsen counts those games as syndicated shows, and because of the way Nielsen calculates ratings for syndicated shows the viewership on ESPN and NFL Network is included as well, so when the weekly syndicated ratings reports come out MNF and TNF are near the top and include the numbers for those local stations. The syndicated ratings reports come out with Nielsen’s other weekly reports on Tuesday but a week later than everything else, so I’m going to be targeting Tuesday as the earliest I put up this post from now on.

Numbers compiled from a variety of sources, including TV by the Numbers, The Futon Critic, Sports Media Watch, and Son of the Bronx.

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PT Rnk	TD Rnk		PT Vwr (000)	PT/ ESPN	TD Vwr (000)	TD HH	TD/ ESPN
1	1		4256	4256	1591	1.1	1591
=	=		+50%		+27%	+27%	1.1
2	2		1312	1808	380	0.3	524
+3	+1		+442%		+131%	+116%	0.4
3	3		633	633	339	0.2	339
-1	-1		-22%		-19%	-18%	0.2
9	4		97	115	116	0.1	138
-1	+4		+3%		+67%	+92%	0.1
4	5		302	331	109	0.1	119
=	-1		+20%		-14%	-15%	0.1
5	6		235	328	82	0.1	114
-2	-1		-10%		-14%	-10%	0.1
6	7		152	200	78	0.0	102
=	-1		-13%		-14%	-25%	0.1
8	8		99	129	71	0.1	93
-1	-1		-17%		-8%	-9%	0.1
7	9		100	126	67	0.0	84
+2	=		+19%		+34%	+64%	0.0
10	10		37	61	20	0.0	32
=	=		-5%		-2%	-62%	0.0

I said on my tweeter a while back that big changes were coming to the scorecard, but even I didn’t know what sort of changes. The same week it added ratings for ESPNEWS, Son of the Bronx also listed primetime and total day rankings for ESPN. Because it was just ESPN, I didn’t think much of it. Fast forward to this week where SotB is listing primetime and total day ratings for EVERY sports network for this week and last! The table is still sorted by total day, as I consider that a more accurate measure of popularity for a sports network, and the total day numbers are still determined using the crude method I was using (which I can’t use for primetime because not every program fits neatly into the 8-11 block and 7 would be a more appropriate starting time for sports networks), which seems to slightly understate the total day viewership compared to the official numbers Son of the Bronx has, but allows for more precision for the new percent-change listing, especially for household rating which SotB doesn’t have the averages for at all.

SotB also has year-ago comparisons for every network that isn’t ESPNU (how come Nielsen has been reporting distribution for ESPNU for a few years yet I’ve seen evidence it wasn’t actually being rated until last year?), which is more apples-to-apples than the week-by-week changes that vary considerably over the course of the year (just look at the huge leap NFLN took with Thursday Night Football coming back), but I have no idea how to incorporate those comparisons into the chart.

Is ESPN underplaying NFL Matchup? I don’t mean in the sense that “ESPN buries all its actual good programs”, I mean in the sense that ESPN is missing an actual chance for actual good ratings. Yes, regular ESPN could put a test pattern on in the dead of night and get 250,000 viewers, but over 750k for a program at 4 AM ET, which is still 1 AM on the West Coast, is pretty impressive. Granted the 6:30 Sunday airing on ESPN is doing better than the new Saturday 8:30 airing on ESPN2, but it is new and Matchup fans might not be aware of it yet. When Fantasy Football Now was only 90 minutes on ESPN2, I wondered why the Deuce had an extra half-hour of SportsCenter that had to be bumped to ESPNEWS at the bottom of the hour, often to get bumped itself for NASCAR Countdown after another half hour, rather than putting on Matchup for that half-hour. FF Now is actually losing audience from its SportsCenter lead-in; I have to imagine Matchup would at least be on par with ESPN2’s other programming at that time if not retain more of SportsCenter’s audience.

All numbers are in thousands of viewers and are from Son of the Bronx.

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This post is as late as it is in part because I didn’t have any numbers for the first round of the PGA Championship until earlier today, and I still don’t have numbers specific enough to be confident in its ranking.

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of September 2-8: NFL Kickoff Edition

Numbers compiled from a variety of sources, including TV by the Numbers, The Futon Critic, Sports Media Watch, and Son of the Bronx.

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