[Elvis]

https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/SB- ... 08/21.aspx

CHANGES TO RATINGS RELEASES TO HAVE BIG IMPACT ON SPORTS

Overnight ratings -- an early glimpse into how well sports events fare on TV -- are about to undergo drastic changes that have execs with multiple networks questioning whether they will even release the numbers publicly. Nielsen has told U.S. TV networks that starting Oct. 3, it will include out-of-home (OOH) viewing in its overnight numbers. It also told the networks that it will release numbers from 44 markets at around 1:00pm ET each day. Currently, Nielsen provides numbers from 56 markets at around 8:30am ET each morning.

Nielsen’s national TV numbers, which are released around 4:00pm ET each day, will not be affected by any of these changes. Network execs expect to rely more heavily on the national viewership numbers once the overnight changes take effect.

Rival TV execs have contacted each other to figure out how to deal with the changes. The goal is to get all the networks and leagues to agree to not release overnight ratings this fall. The reason: comparisons to last year will be like comparing apples to oranges given all the changes. Network execs have spent years complaining about the amount of attention given to overnight ratings, which they say have offered an incomplete picture of a sport's ratings performance. Oftentimes overnight ratings will show a drop from the previous year only to have a final number show an increase -- or vice versa.

Still, network execs are enthused about the inclusion of OOH numbers in Nielsen’s overnight reports and are hoping that it marks a first step to having national ratings incorporate OOH viewing at some point in 2020. Networks have said that OOH viewing can bolster audiences for big sports events by as much as 40%. Some ad buyers have said that OOH viewers are not as valuable as someone watching at home. Someone watching a TV in a bar or restaurant, for example, may not be as engaged as someone watching from their couch.

[aeneas1]

it's so hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that nielsen, after 70 years, is still the only recognized name in the television viewership ratings game, i mean no one has come close to knocking them off their perch... when i lived in l.a. in the early 80s, i had a buddy who worked for nielsen, he went from state to state, household to household, installing their rating boxes and polling household members, if there was ever a more inexact science i can't think of it, boxes failed all of the time, some flat-out didn't work, and the polling was on the honor system, i.e. pollsters could just make up a bunch of stuff and submit it, which he often did (hey, we were irresponsible early 20-year-olds living for the l.a. nightlife, ha ha...), as i'm sure a lot of their cheap, young labor force did.

anyway, i would think that execs would jump at the chance to release the ooh numbers, so they could bunch them with ih numbers and say "look at the huge gains over last year!" given that it seems that no one really gets, or ever questions, the numbers nielsen pumps out.

[Elvis]

[Neil039]

People stream so much these days it’s hard to track, along with DVR. Can we get a group of us to band together and start our own rating system? There has to be money in it. The TV Show group..@Elvis @aeneas1 RamsLegend, DieterBrock and others would make a great review panel IMO

[Elvis]

[Elvis]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... game-five/

Packers-Chiefs easily beats World Series Game Five

Posted by Mike Florio on October 29, 2019, 12:48 PM EDT

Before 2010, the NFL deliberately avoided staging a Sunday night game that competed with the World Series. Nearly a decade later, it’s not much of a competition.

The Mahomes-less game between the Packers and Chiefs averaged 18.3 million viewers, according to NBC. The fifth game of the World Series averaged 11.4 million viewers. The 61-percent gap becomes the highest of the NFL vs. World Series rivalries.

The World Series generally has struggled this year; even a not-so-must-see Thursday night game between Washington and Minnesota outperformed each of the first four games of the World Series. Saturday night’s Game Four generated the second-lowest TV ratings for a World Series game ever.

Game Six of the World Series happens tonight.

[Elvis]

[Elvis]

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... s-of-2019/

NFL games were 41 of the 50 most-watched TV broadcasts of 2019

Posted by Michael David Smith on January 8, 2020, 7:18 PM EST

The NFL continued to dominate American television in 2019.

Of the 50 most-watched television broadcasts of the year, 41 of them were NFL games. Ad Age has the full list, which is of course topped by the Super Bowl but also has run-of-the-mill regular season games that top any entertainment programming the networks air.

The nine programs among the Top 50 that were not NFL games were the State of the Union, the president’s border address, the Academy Awards, the College Football National Championship Game and one College Football Playoff game, Game 7 of the World Series, an episode of The World’s Best that CBS aired immediately following the Super Bowl, the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the Grammy Awards.

NFL ratings improved over from 2018 to 2019, although they were plenty strong in 2018, too. In the year ahead, the presidential election is likely to take some steam out of NFL ratings, as more viewers will watch news instead of sports. It also won’t help the NFL’s ratings that two presidential debates are scheduled on nights when NFL games are played. But while the NFL may take a ratings hit in 2020, there’s little doubt that a year from now, we’ll be looking back again and saying that football games represented most of the top broadcasts on television.

[aeneas1]

which will no doubt keep those fat ad bucks rolling in.

[Elvis]