Saturday's 1-1 tie in Seattle, the first MLS game between the old North American Soccer League...

Saturday's 1-1 tie in Seattle, the first MLS game between the old North American Soccer League rivals, drew a 3.0 rating in Seattle/Tacoma and a 2.2 rating in Portland. In the ESPN2 broadcast, no other market registered higher than a .7 rating and the national average was a .2 rating.

Seattle, Portland far ahead in TV ratings for first MLS matchup from Rachel Bachman

about 1 year ago Ryan Gates 11 comments 0 recs |

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I hate you ESPN2

.2 for a matchup that could have rated much higher on a national scale if it had been on at a better hour. That’s frustrating. I will be very interested to see what the ratings for the rematch will be.

by pdb on May 17, 2011 3:18 PM PDT reply actions

Yeah

But I think those numbers are no where near what the actual numbers are. Just as she points out in the article you cannot account for the number of people watching online and in bars. The Nielsen Ratings are so antiquated it isn’t funny. Time to come up with a new way.

Contributing editor to Stumptown Footy the Portland Timbers SBN blog.

by Ryan Gates on May 17, 2011 3:59 PM PDT up reply actions

DVR ratings? [up to a week later]

Internet Ratings?
Illegal stream ratings?
Twitter followers?
FB followers?

Lots of ways to watch/follow/listen than the boob tube today.

Jag kom, jag såg, erövrade jag.

by Kejsare on May 17, 2011 4:26 PM PDT up reply actions

None of those things sell ads though

I agree with you that there are a lot more ways to consume soccer these days, but all the things you list don’t really convince ESPN that they should spend more money promoting MLS. Which is what I would love to see.

by pdb on May 17, 2011 7:50 PM PDT up reply actions

But ESPN gets all those ESPN3 hits.

They’re just not counted by Nielsen or released to the public because ESPN has no need to show in house media player statistics.

.2 is fine given what time slot it is in. I think ESPN would be pleased with that.

Jag kom, jag såg, erövrade jag.

by Kejsare on May 17, 2011 9:17 PM PDT up reply actions

That's my whole problem with this, though

.2 is fine given what time slot it is in. I think ESPN would be pleased with that.

I don’t want “fine”, and I don’t want ESPN to be pleased with a relatively miniscule rating in a ridiculous time slot. I want them to be serious about promoting and growing MLS, which means trying to draw in casual fans, not just catering to fans who were going to watch anyway (which is what the high NW ratings and low national ratings mean) – and you can’t do that at 11PM ET on a Saturday night with two West Coast teams. You just can’t.

I would rather them show a Saturday night game of the week at 8 ET, get a rating of ~1 or 1.5, and say “hey maybe we’re on to something here” rather than settling for preaching to the choir, being happy that the markets in which the teams are playing rate highly, and calling it good.

by pdb on May 17, 2011 9:25 PM PDT up reply actions

I don't want to trot out what else was playing at the 7 EST time slot.

Because it would’ve gotten the same or less. Moving it to 11 EST ensured no overlap with other sports.

Jag kom, jag såg, erövrade jag.

by Kejsare on May 17, 2011 9:42 PM PDT up reply actions

Glad she mentioned Internet and pubs

because I watched on ESPN3.com with two other people. Cable TV ratings are always lower than Broadcast TV. As mentioned, bad time slot and ESPN can promote it better. MLS has some work to do too. But nice ratings in the PNW are important since most Timbers games are regional or local broadcasts. Also, not everything we do here has to be validated by some east coast Preoria.

by yepyou'reright on May 17, 2011 9:32 PM PDT reply actions

I'm not looking for local validation, I couldn't care less about that

I’m looking for overall MLS growth. Nice ratings in the PNW are important, but they’re also almost a given, at least for a SEA/PDX matchup; I want people in Chicago, Boston, NY to be able to see MLS at a reasonable hour and go “wow, this is something I should watch on a regular basis” regardless of what teams were involved.

by pdb on May 18, 2011 6:52 AM PDT up reply actions 1 recs

I would like to see

comparison numbers. What do Blazer games score? What do Seahawk games score? What did the NY LA game score in Seattle/Portland/LA/NYC?

Scoreboards, not billboards.
Regular season, not pre-season.

by lysander on May 17, 2011 10:08 PM PDT reply actions

According to The Don

Don Garber at the home opener was talking about how TV ratings in some areas outdraw the other sports. No one followed up with a question tho and I wasn’t quick enough to get a question in. Plus I don’t want to pay to get the information.

Contributing editor to Stumptown Footy the Portland Timbers SBN blog.

by Ryan Gates on May 18, 2011 1:54 AM PDT up reply actions