Sports TV Ratings

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

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.

Read more

Reportedly, Fox Sports 1 is going to extend NASCAR Race Hub to an hour at 4 PM ET, bumping Fox Soccer Daily to 3:30, and has cut the midnight edition of Fox Sports Live in favor of a Fox Football Daily re-air and all the overnight editions from 2 to 6 AM in favor of other reruns. Personally I think this is a bit of a hasty overreaction; most of FS1’s audience is still people who remember it when it was Speed, and Race Hub’s relative success is a sign of that. As people in other fanbases discover FS1, Race Hub should start falling down the rankings of the late-afternoon studio shows on the channel, and having the Champions League proper start this week should give FSD a boost among soccer fans. At the least I would have waited and seen what effect the Champions League had on FSD’s ratings.

As for FSL, I would have cut the panel before cutting re-airs; the loss of an edition at 2 AM ET, in particular, means games will still be ending during the 1 AM hour and that could affect the edition of FSL that gets replayed during the morning. Washington State-USC became FS1’s most-watched program outside the UFC card on launch day and FS1 as a whole had a pretty substantial lead for fourth place over MLBN for the week (although Golf Channel didn’t have a golf tournament over the weekend). The network is growing, and it should be allowed to grow unencumbered.

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

Read more

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of August 26-September 1: College Football 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.

Read more

Your new most-watched show in FS1 history that’s not UFC, Speed-esque, or had either one as a lead-in was the network’s very own Appalachian State moment when North Dakota State upended Kansas State. Since that came on Friday, any spillover effects on FS1 studio shows that aren’t Fox Sports Live won’t be apparent until next week. But your second most-watched FSL episode is now the one that had Boise State-Washington as a lead-in, and it and the one following NDSU-KSU both drew better audiences than that college football preview show I mentioned last week. What effect did college football have on people deciding to watch FSL on their own? Sunday’s 11 PM episode drew 100,000 viewers. Only 55,000 tuned in at the same time the previous week. On the other hand, the week before that, the day after launch, 120,000 people tuned in at the same time. I would still call that an encouraging sign heading into Week 3; now let’s see if FS1 can sustain the momentum. Certainly FS1 has to be encouraged by edging out the Golf Channel in total day for the week despite Golf getting three million-plus audiences with Deutsche Bank Championship coverage; that put them behind just ESPN, ESPN2, and NFLN among all sports networks, and if they can keep that up that has to be considered a success or at least a non-failure.

Keith Olbermann’s new show got off to a rollicking start for ESPN2 last week, producing more bad PR for Fox Sports Live. But there is a show on a non-ESPN network that managed to beat Olbermann on his first night and every night thereafter, one with much less distribution than FS1. While NFL Total Access doubtless benefitted from almost the entire NFLN schedule the past few weeks consisting of preseason reairs, I can’t help but imagine that it’ll only go up in future weeks.

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

*If I had to guess, these are three-hour shows to 10 ET

*3-hour show from 10-1
†9-12 average only

*1-2:30; The Experts 2:30-4 had 73,000 viewers
†College Football Live

*UEFA Champions League coverage 2:30-5; Race Hub aired at 12 PM
†3rd hour of The Rundown

*Aired for a half-hour, followed by half-hour re-airs (76,000 Tuesday, 155,000 Friday)
†ATH and PTI aired an hour earlier; College Football Live aired on ESPN

*Half-hour pregame
†Aired 6-7

ESPN, ESPN2 and FS1 all aired college football in time slot Saturday
*Aired on ESPN2
†Aired after Utah State-Utah, started at 11:38, ran to 1 AM

*College Football Final after Northwestern/Cal had 422,000 viewers
†Live airing at 1 AM due to football and US Open-related complications
‡Aired on ESPN2

*Started at 12:30
†11 PM airing had 114,000 viewers; 12 AM airing had 92,000
‡Aired at midnight
^Pushed to 2 AM due to football and US Open-related complications

*Aired at 3 AM

*Special edition airing to 1 PM ET

By the time I could have posted this, I would have already had viewership and 18-49 numbers for the last Nine for IX documentary from the Futon Critic. By putting it off until today, I can get you the HH rating as well from Son of the Bronx. Here, then, are all the relevant numbers for all of the Nine for IX documentaries:

Sports Ratings Highlights for Week of August 19-25: NFL Dress Rehearsal Edition

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

Read more