2015 TV viewership

[KnowItAll]

if anyone still cares, I received the following feedback from the lions.

"We are very sorry for this and we do thank you for taking the time to bring it to our attention.

Lions players and staff did observe two minutes of silence from 11:11 to 11:13 on November 11th to pay respect to both Canadian and American veterans. Unfortunately this did not coincide with the Legion’s 11:00am moment of silence and for that we are very sorry.

We deeply regret that this mistake was made and in the future, we will ensure that the team is not on the field during the Legion’s ceremony.

Again, our deepest apologies for this regrettable incident.

Thank you for your understanding,"

in view of this, I am confident that the future will be better. Kudos to them for the response.

[MexicoLionFan]

Hey all,

I think the CFL is a victim of cord-cutting as much as anything else. There was an article in the Huffington Post the other day that Canadians are getting rid of cable at seven times the rate they were at this point last year. Rogers lost 6.1% of its subscribers, and 153,ooo people dropped their cable services in the first nine months of this year. This trend will continue.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/11/11 ... 37168.html

I've written before that I'm without cable, because I just don't need/want it. All the shows I want to watch are available online (QI, Elementary, South Park) or soon will be: (Top Gear, Sherlock).

I used to be a CFL fanatic, watching every game each weekend; now I watch the Lions' games a few days later on Youtube, if they were close/interesting games. Otherwise, I've better things to do than watch television for 3+ hours at a time.

Given this trend, I think the CFL is at a crossroads where it needs to come up with a digital strategy. I would gladly pay a monthly fee for a BC Lions youtube channel (for example) that had a live game broadcast, and Lions specific analysis. The relatively small size of the league should make doing this less complicated than with larger leagues, and they should get ahead of the curve, if possible.

Once you've got ridden of cable, one of the curious experiences is TV advertising which you once viewed as just part of the background of broadcasts becomes particularly offensive. I don't ever want to see another ad for a Wendy's Baconator, thankyouverymuch. One of the virtues of online ads is that they are targeted to the individual based on my browsing/purchase history, and if their has to be ads, they should be as tailored to the individual as possible.

Along similar lines, I'd like to make a screwball suggestion: the league should get rid of TV timeouts. There is simply no need for them. The in-stadium experience, without TV timeouts, would be vastly improved. Last week's game against Calgary is on Youtube. The fellow splices out the ads, but keeps the halftime show/analysis. It was 1 hour, 57 minutes. That's purrfect. Imagine how great it would be for the league (and those watching in the stands) to knock an hour off the total time at the game where *nothing* happens. It would be the biggest revolution in the game since instant replay. TSN, bless them, could still go to commercial by pausing the feed and picking up where the game left off once they'd run their suite of four or five thirty-second ads. Radio would be hooped, but I'm sure they could be accommodated/placated somehow. Several sports, particularly in Europe, have no TV-timeouts. I'm a bit of a Formula 1 fan, and watching UK coverage of a race is fantastic. They never cut away. It's brilliant. International rugby is the same, as is soccer (if I'm not mistaken). When you watch these sports you don't feel like you've blown a whole afternoon on the couch, and you haven't been bombarded with loud, annoying adverts. It's something the CFL should emulate.

And while I'm dreaming, I want multiple audio feeds for a game. Frankly, I don't care to hear the commentators 90% of the time. There is no reason that I should have to hear the TSN gameday commentators and have no other options. As a consumer of the product, I should be able to toggle between the radio feeds of each of team and a live, unedited audio feed from the field. Obviously there would have to be a language warning, but seriously, wouldn't all of you rather hear Nik Lewis trash talking Adam Bighill in all his profane glory than Suitor rambling on about somebody's nickname?

I don't think any of these changes are likely, but I do think the CFL should start thinking about them. Every year more and more Canadians are getting rid of cable and if your business model relies on tv broadcasts, then you're hooped unless you start innovating.

Anyway, that's enough rambling for one morning.

Cheers,

James

An excellent post James...you possess an open mind which is a rare thing these days BECAUSE of television and movie programming.

[jcalhoun]

Re: my earlier post about cable cutting, there's news today that ESPN has lost 7 million subscribers over the last two years.

http://goo.gl/KrWLv3

Cheers,

James

[B.C.FAN]

If the CFL and other sports leagues are going to survive in the cable-cutting era, they'll have to embrace live streaming with no strings attached. The younger generation that the CFL is trying to attract doesn't have cable.

[Lions4ever]

If the CFL and other sports leagues are going to survive in the cable-cutting era, they'll have to embrace live streaming with no strings attached. The younger generation that the CFL is trying to attract doesn't have cable.

And I'm not sure it's just a "younger generation" thing. Some of us Old Farts may well have dumped cable a long time ago too, but the alternate technology didn't exist yet. But cable is probably more affordable to an older generation whose disposable income is a lot better than a younger person's probably is unless you're some kind of well-heeled techbro or something.

[Dusty]

If the CFL and other sports leagues are going to survive in the cable-cutting era, they'll have to embrace live streaming with no strings attached. The younger generation that the CFL is trying to attract doesn't have cable.

And I'm not sure it's just a "younger generation" thing. Some of us Old Farts may well have dumped cable a long time ago too, but the alternate technology didn't exist yet. But cable is probably more affordable to an older generation whose disposable income is a lot better than a younger person's probably is unless you're some kind of well-heeled techbro or something.

As an old fart myself, I cut the cable cord about 6 years ago. I do miss football and I would be prepared to pay for selectively streaming some games if the price was right. It frustrates me that TSN Go is available only if you have a TV provider. Not very curent thinking.... None of my kids have cable, they stream stuff.

[malcolmm]

If the CFL and other sports leagues are going to survive in the cable-cutting era, they'll have to embrace live streaming with no strings attached. The younger generation that the CFL is trying to attract doesn't have cable.

And I'm not sure it's just a "younger generation" thing. Some of us Old Farts may well have dumped cable a long time ago too, but the alternate technology didn't exist yet. But cable is probably more affordable to an older generation whose disposable income is a lot better than a younger person's probably is unless you're some kind of well-heeled techbro or something.

As an old fart myself, I cut the cable cord about 6 years ago. I do miss football and I would be prepared to pay for selectively streaming some games if the price was right. It frustrates me that TSN Go is available only if you have a TV provider. Not very curent thinking.... None of my kids have cable, they stream stuff.

Similar suitation for me, although I'm not really a cable cutter as I've never had cable. I would also be prepared to pay a modest amount for streaming of CFL games. Not sure how much I would be willing to pay, maybe $50 for the season would be reasonable.

[B.C.FAN]

It looks like the 103rd Grey Cup bucked the trend of declining viewership.

Nearly 10 million take in 103rd Grey Cup on TSN and RDS

CFL.ca Staff

TORONTO -- Canada’s biggest party continues to be one of the biggest events on Canadian television, as nearly 10 million total viewers tuned into the 103rd Grey Cup presented by Shaw on RDS and TSN along with an average audience of 4.3 million.

The numbers mark a six per cent growth compared to last year according to preliminary overnight data from Numeris as fans tuned in to watch the Edmonton Eskimos earn a 26-20 Grey Cup victory over the Ottawa REDBLACKS.

Overall, 9.7 million unique viewers, or nearly 30 per cent of the entire Canadian population, watched some or all of the 2015 CFL championship game on TSN and RDS.

"The fact that nearly one in every three Canadians watched some part of the Grey Cup speaks to the strength and importance of the CFL and the Grey Cup to our country," said Commissioner Jeffrey L. Orridge.

"It's amazing what happens when the passion of our fans, the quality of our game and the superb work of TSN and RDS come together."

Audiences for the game peaked at 5.5 million viewers late in the game as Edmonton scored a clutch goal line touchdown on third down to take the lead for good in the fourth quarter.

Fans of the winning team rallied around the result, as the game became the highest-rated program of the calendar year in the Edmonton Extended Market, with 66 per cent of people watching television tuning in for the broadcast.

Among the highlights:

• The 103rd Grey Cup presented by Shaw becomes the 19th program in the history of TSN to average more than 3 million viewers.

• The electric halftime performance by multi-platinum rockers Fall Out Boy during the Nissan Titan Half-Time Show attracted an average audience of 3.8 million viewers.

• An average audience of 1.8 million viewers stayed to watch TSN’s extensive post-game coverage. #GreyCup was also a popular topic on Twitter as it trended for over 5.5 hours throughout the day on Sunday.

• 102,000-plus total mentions of the Grey Cup on Twitter during Grey Cup Sunday (approx. 15 per cent more than the 102nd Grey Cup).

• Most Tweeted moment was the final play at 9:31 pm ET (410 Tweets/minute were sent at that time)

[B.C.FAN]

Not only did the Grey Cup game and the pregame show top the weekend sports ratings but the Vanier Cup drew a solid 311,000 viewers. I'm going to miss football season.

1. CFL, Grey Cup: Redblacks vs. Eskimos, Sunday, TSN: 4,079,000

2. CFL, Countdown to Grey Cup, Sunday, TSN: 2,500,000

3. NHL, Caps-Leafs/Devils-Habs/Oilers-Pens, Saturday, CBC-Rogers, 1,870,000

4. NHL, Flames-Sharks/Sens-Coyotes/Jets-Avs, Saturday, CBC-Rogers, 1,000,000

5. NFL, Steelers-Seahawks/Cardinals-Niners, Sunday, CTV: 837,000

6. NFL, Early afternoon games, Sunday, CTV: 694,000

7. CIS, Vanier Cup: UBC vs. Montreal, Saturday, Sportsnet: 311,000

8. Canucks at Stars, Friday, Sportsnet Pacific: 278,000

9. Canadiens at Devils, Friday, Sportsnet East: 219,000

10. Panthers at Red Wings, Sunday, Sportsnet: 216,000

The Great Canadian Ratings Report: Grey Cup a much-needed victory for the CFL

[sj-roc]

Further to James's posts last month about cable cutting and ESPN's shrinking subscriber base, a more in-depth article from The Daily Beast about what this means for professional sports and the telecasting thereof — at least in the USA:

The Sports Bubble Is About to Pop

Excerpt:

Don’t buy ESPN’s PR talk that its 7 million-household dip in subscribers is just a blip. It’s for real, and the end of its empire will have widespread consequences for the way you watch sports and pay for TV.

Your favorite sports team is massively overvalued right now. It’s not that you ought to be losing sleep over Jerry Jones’s or Mark Cuban’s finances—they were rich before and will be rich after. But the popping and cracking noises emanating from the key support beam in our Temple of Athletics—the TV sports business—foreshadow wild disruptions ahead for the world of sports.
...
For more than 30 years... ESPN enjoyed an unbroken stream of growth and innovation on its way to becoming the immovable Gibraltar of the cable bundle. By pioneering the neat trick of partnering with cable television operators to drill directly into the wallets of almost all cable subscribers—every face-painting team fanatic and couldn’t-give-a-flip, sports-hating HGTV obsessive alike paid the channel’s highest-in-the-industry fees, whether they knew it or not, in their cable bills—ESPN reached ever more Jordan-esque heights in revenue and profitability.
...
But now the cable bundle is on the receiving end of massive blasts of the same disintermediating forces the Internet has brought to dozens of other industries. Basically, [if] there were ever a sports bubble in the United States, it may have already existed in this last decade.

And that sports bubble is about to pop.