Post by myusernamesucks on Feb 25, 2011 12:21:50 GMT -5
Evidence that ESPN’s obsession with the Heat is justified, at least from an interest standpoint: The Heat has surpassed the Lakers as ESPN’s most-watched basketball team and has become so popular locally that only two other NBA franchises are producing higher local cable ratings.
At the opposite extreme are the Panthers, who are drawing a slightly smaller average local rating than last weekend’s infomercial hawking an ice-crushing blender.
Apparently, more viewers prefer to watch ice being crushed than the Panthers being crushed on ice.
A half-dozen items that caught our eye in our recent check on viewership trends (thanks to Sports Business Journal for some of the NBA and NHL numbers):
• Let’s be clear: Locally, Dolphins games are watched in more than three times as many homes as Heat games, on average. (Remember, Heat games are mostly on cable – and 30 percent of Dade/Broward homes don’t have cable TV, according to Nielsen.)
But here’s the difference: The Dolphins’ local ratings are among the league’s worst compared with other cities (28th in the league, and last if you exclude the two markets that have two NFL teams).
By comparison, the Heat’s local ratings are among the best.
Average Heat ratings on Sun Sports have skyrocketed from a 2.5 last season to a 5.2 – higher than the Lakers’ 4.9 and behind only the Spurs (10) and Jazz (6) for cable ratings as of two weeks ago.
That means 5.2 percent of all Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets are tuned in to a Heat game, on average. Numbers for New Orleans and Toronto were not available.
• ESPN’s 2.2 national rating for its five Heat games is the highest for any team, with the Knicks, Lakers and Magic tied for second at 1.8. For ABC’s games, the Heat’s three games have averaged a 4.0 nationally, second behind the Lakers’ 4.8. TNT won’t say if the Heat is its most-watched team, but three of its five highest-rated games this season involved Miami.
• Locally, Heat postgame shows on Sun Sports are averaging nearly as high a rating (2.3) as the games did last season (2.5).
• To give you some perspective on how few people watch the Panthers, consider this: Their .19 local rating was the worst in the NHL among the 22 teams studied by Sports Business Daily (numbers for Carolina, Nashville and Canadian teams were not available).
That’s lower than the rating for a kid’s show named Doodlebops at 7 a.m. Sunday on WFOR-4, lower than an AbCoaster exercise equipment infomercial on WFOR last Sunday, and lower than the Ninja Professional Blender, Chopper and Ice Crusher infomercial on WPLG-10.
So far this season, 82,191 homes have tuned in to Heat games on Sun Sports, on average, compared with 3,000 for Panthers games on FSNF. Pittsburgh averages the most per-game cable households in the NHL (105,000 per telecast).
• The Panthers, who are 23rd in the NHL in attendance, are so starved for attention that they are citing the possibility of NFL and NBA work stoppages as part of their new advertising campaign. “Next season, basketball and football might take a little vacation,” one of the ads says. “But your Florida Panthers aren’t going anywhere! Hockey is guaranteed! Buy [season tickets] for next year now and be our guest during every game in March and April.”
Quick aside: Do not blame the Panthers’ business side (headed by president Michael Yormark) and its creative marketing team.
The responsibility for this mess can be pinned on ownership and the hockey people before Cliff Viner became owner and Dale Tallon general manager in the past year.
Viner/Tallon get a partial pass because they’re undertaking a major rebuilding job with a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2000.
At the opposite extreme are the Panthers, who are drawing a slightly smaller average local rating than last weekend’s infomercial hawking an ice-crushing blender.
Apparently, more viewers prefer to watch ice being crushed than the Panthers being crushed on ice.
A half-dozen items that caught our eye in our recent check on viewership trends (thanks to Sports Business Journal for some of the NBA and NHL numbers):
• Let’s be clear: Locally, Dolphins games are watched in more than three times as many homes as Heat games, on average. (Remember, Heat games are mostly on cable – and 30 percent of Dade/Broward homes don’t have cable TV, according to Nielsen.)
But here’s the difference: The Dolphins’ local ratings are among the league’s worst compared with other cities (28th in the league, and last if you exclude the two markets that have two NFL teams).
By comparison, the Heat’s local ratings are among the best.
Average Heat ratings on Sun Sports have skyrocketed from a 2.5 last season to a 5.2 – higher than the Lakers’ 4.9 and behind only the Spurs (10) and Jazz (6) for cable ratings as of two weeks ago.
That means 5.2 percent of all Miami-Fort Lauderdale homes with TV sets are tuned in to a Heat game, on average. Numbers for New Orleans and Toronto were not available.
• ESPN’s 2.2 national rating for its five Heat games is the highest for any team, with the Knicks, Lakers and Magic tied for second at 1.8. For ABC’s games, the Heat’s three games have averaged a 4.0 nationally, second behind the Lakers’ 4.8. TNT won’t say if the Heat is its most-watched team, but three of its five highest-rated games this season involved Miami.
• Locally, Heat postgame shows on Sun Sports are averaging nearly as high a rating (2.3) as the games did last season (2.5).
• To give you some perspective on how few people watch the Panthers, consider this: Their .19 local rating was the worst in the NHL among the 22 teams studied by Sports Business Daily (numbers for Carolina, Nashville and Canadian teams were not available).
That’s lower than the rating for a kid’s show named Doodlebops at 7 a.m. Sunday on WFOR-4, lower than an AbCoaster exercise equipment infomercial on WFOR last Sunday, and lower than the Ninja Professional Blender, Chopper and Ice Crusher infomercial on WPLG-10.
So far this season, 82,191 homes have tuned in to Heat games on Sun Sports, on average, compared with 3,000 for Panthers games on FSNF. Pittsburgh averages the most per-game cable households in the NHL (105,000 per telecast).
• The Panthers, who are 23rd in the NHL in attendance, are so starved for attention that they are citing the possibility of NFL and NBA work stoppages as part of their new advertising campaign. “Next season, basketball and football might take a little vacation,” one of the ads says. “But your Florida Panthers aren’t going anywhere! Hockey is guaranteed! Buy [season tickets] for next year now and be our guest during every game in March and April.”
Quick aside: Do not blame the Panthers’ business side (headed by president Michael Yormark) and its creative marketing team.
The responsibility for this mess can be pinned on ownership and the hockey people before Cliff Viner became owner and Dale Tallon general manager in the past year.
Viner/Tallon get a partial pass because they’re undertaking a major rebuilding job with a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2000.