Ratings not good for Saturday games

[Rammer]

Saturday games no lift for TV; TSN blames lack of team from Ontario for drop in viewership
The Toronto Star
Tue 11 Nov 2008
Page: S05
Section: Sports
Byline: Chris Zelkovich
Source: Toronto Star

The CFL's decision to move its playoffs from Sunday to Saturday produced improved ticket sales, but was a flop on television.

The East semi between Winnipeg and Edmonton attracted an average audience of 610,000 viewers to TSN, 38 per cent fewer than CBC drew in 2007 for Winnipeg- Montreal. The Western game between B.C. and Saskatchewan did better, drawing 862,000 viewers, but that was still 15 per cent behind last year's CBC audience of 1 million.

TSN president Phil King said the network was disappointed. "With no Ontario team in the playoffs for the first time ever there was a dropoff in interest, compared to last year when Toronto was hosting the Grey Cup," he said.

Detailed ratings showed a drop of almost 250,000 viewers in Ontario this year following a season in which both Toronto and Hamilton were eliminated early from playoff contention. Last year, the Argos got a bye into the East final.

CFL spokesman Matt Maychak agreed that the Ontario factor was a big part of the story and he isn't convinced Saturday games should be abandoned. The league reported that ticket sales were up 13 per cent.

"We'll look at next weekend and see if a trend emerges," he said. "Then we'll meet with TSN to assess the situation."

King defended the decision to change days, which he said was made by both TSN and the league in hopes of increasing ratings because Saturday afternoons tend to have less competition.

"I don't think Saturday had anything to do with it," he said, denying the move was made to avoid head-to-head competition with parent network CTV's NFL broadcasts.

Despite the low numbers, the East final drew 62,000 more viewers than CTV's largest NFL broadcast of the season Sunday afternoon.

The ratings don't bode well for next Saturday's East Division final.

The East final between Edmonton and Montreal is bound to produce far fewer viewers for TSN than last year's Toronto-Winnipeg game, mainly because most Quebec viewers watch football on French-language RDS.

The West final pitting B.C. and Calgary might also face a challenge to match the audience numbers produced last year when the game included Saskatchewan , which always generates large ratings.

[Wakesbetterthanyou]

Do you finally see my point?

It was a stupid move to shift games to Saturdays. And now the league and those nutcases at TSN and CTV are paying for it.

Next year (2009) when they approach advertisers to sell TV airtime for the games, the rates they charge will be based on the numbers for the previous year (2008).

so it just costs everyone money.

Stupidity can cost you.

CTV keeping their NFL games sacred; load of crapp

seriously, this deserves nothing more than a

You really know nothing of marketing, and the fact that you try makes u sound even less intelligent. One would hope that eventually your stupidity would cost you the change to post again.

[Lions4ever]

FWIW, according to William Houston's Globe & Mail column, TSN chose not to bother streaming the semis, citing the Saturday as the reason.

[Hambone]

FWIW, according to William Houston's Globe & Mail column, TSN chose not to bother streaming the semis, citing the Saturday as the reason.

I found that a bit puzzling then started to wonder how many people do use that service on a weekend. Myself I've found it potentially handy when I'm travelling for business during the week as I have found myself in locations or hotels that don't have TSN. On the weekend though it would a very rare instance where I might not have access to TSN. And if I am in such a location it's probable I don't have internet access either. There must be some sort of cost TSN has to bear to make streaming available otherwise one would think they'd just do it.

[notahomer]

I worked out fine for me but I STILL think it was a dumb idea. I watch NFL football almost every Sunday. I would rather NOT watch NFL football and catch the CFL playoffs on Sundays where I feel they should be. A day to relax, have some people over, make some spicy chicken wings and wait for the mountains to change colour--strike that I hate BEER. Thankfully, I will still be missing NFL ball on Grey Cup Sunday.

[Hambone]

Do you finally see my point?

Nope. Provide me the numbers of the last 4 or 5 years and I'll mull it over though. I've been looking but haven't found anything yet. I'd like to see last weeks vs 2007 semis vs 2006 semis etc. Teams involved in sports playoff games will always have the biggest impact on viewership over any other factor.

MLB sees their playoff and World Series ratings plummet and soar depending on who is participating. Was it any surprise Tampa Bay and Philadelphia had the worst World Series TV ratings in history? Red Sox and Dodgers or Cubs would've seen them double or triple what they were. Ditto for the NHL. They liked the Detroit/Pittsburgh final last year, but got pounded in other years with Carolina, Tampa Bay, Anaheim etc.

TSN had the misfortune of playoff games moving to Saturdays in a year where it would turn out that for the first time since TV was invented no teams out of the nations largest market, Ontario, would be involved. Will it rebound next week? I think it'll be off again for the same reasons. No Ontario presence, actually no presence for any markets between Alberta and Saskatchewan. Those 250000 that chose to tune out this week with no Argos or Ti-cats aren't likely to suddenly get interested this week.

[Bleddyn]

I found that a bit puzzling then started to wonder how many people do use that service on a weekend. Myself I've found it potentially handy when I'm travelling for business during the week as I have found myself in locations or hotels that don't have TSN. On the weekend though it would a very rare instance where I might not have access to TSN.

I have 2 residences, one in Richmond and one in San Diego CA. I split my time between both. America One (main US carrier) is not available in SD and the only game this year that is actually on a TV channel I recieve there is the GC (on Versus, only game they carry in 08 ). Everything else I rely on streaming while I am there no matter what day. Admittedly my case is probably rare, but there are many reasons a person may have net and no TV options.

[SammyGreene]

Despite the low numbers, the East final drew 62,000 more viewers than CTV's largest NFL broadcast of the season Sunday afternoon.

Wow some consolation prize given CFL regular season games always draw far better ratings than NFL games. They can make the Ontario excuse all they want but it could be easily argued the Lions/Riders was as good of Western game you could get and it still attracted nearly 200,000 less viewers than a year ago.

Sure there are better match-ups than others but we're talking about a whopping 4 playoff games over 2 weekends to determine the Grey Cup opponents — it shouldn't take a ton of intangibles to lure viewers.

The Saturday games aren't competing with HNIC but you are asking the casual sports fan to park himself in front of the TV for 8 1/2 hours to watch two football games and at least one hockey game. And I'm sure CFL/TSN are banking on a good number of those hockey fans to tune into the playoff games that normally would not.

They didn't need to try to fix something that clearly wasn't broken.

[Spud387]

Sundays, people want to relax before the work week begins. There is a lot less to do on Sunday as places close earlier. You'll find more people at home on a Sunday looking for something to do.

Saturday, people are trying to get done what they can't do during the work week. I for one have Hockey every Saturday @ 4pm so I have to miss the later half of the semi and finals.

Do i have a problem with them switching it? No, I couldn't care, but it could have contributed to the lack in viewership. I am nuts as it comes to being a lion fan (cubicle at work and desk at home all orange with lions stuff), yet I will still miss the game, on TV, if I have something active i have to do.

[Bobbyp]

I dislike the saturday games and I rely on the streaming video and couldnt watch and apparently wont be watching again this week, but I get lots of free NFL games to watch Sunday. Someone explain to me how this is a good thing again. Id also like to ad that I never say any advertising anywhere on any other tv channel, radio or newspaper promoting the games and reminding the casual fan what day the playoffs were. I see lots of advertising for the NFL and zero for the CFL.

[TheLionKing]

I'm a Lion and CFL fan. I'll watch it whenever it's on.

[zark]

My wife always bought me tickets as a present for birthdays and such...I couldn't find any one to go with me so she came as well. It was a western final, and she said it was the most fun she had in a long time. (watch it,stay on topic),She has her own jersey,and so does the 5 yr old ...CFL rocks.
I would never trade in my tickets because my team didn't make it.

[Hambone]

I found that a bit puzzling then started to wonder how many people do use that service on a weekend. Myself I've found it potentially handy when I'm travelling for business during the week as I have found myself in locations or hotels that don't have TSN. On the weekend though it would a very rare instance where I might not have access to TSN.

I have 2 residences, one in Richmond and one in San Diego CA. I split my time between both. America One (main US carrier) is not available in SD and the only game this year that is actually on a TV channel I recieve there is the GC (on Versus, only game they carry in 08 ). Everything else I rely on streaming while I am there no matter what day. Admittedly my case is probably rare, but there are many reasons a person may have net and no TV options.

I was wondering how that worked vis a vis stateside. I tried recently when I was in Minnesota for a weekend and seemed to get cut off from accessing the TSN streaming video. I wasn't sure if that was normal or just a coincidence. I can definitely see it useful for out of country, but wasn't sure if it was all that functional if it identified an out of country IP address. I've usually relied on my Slingbox but I have somebody housesitting who might not be so keen watching what I want to watch.

[Bleddyn]

If you find yourself in the US on gameday ESPN360.com is usually the best bet. Some streaming sites do indeed block acces by IP, since they only have rights to brodcast CFL games (or whatever they may be streaming) in certain zones/countires.

[pennw]

There used to be a practise called RECORDING when one could not watch something when it was aired . They were called VCR's . I know now there PVR's and such things , but for many they are stil la tad expensive , atleast last time I checked they were . But it can still be done so people don't have to miss a game they don't want to .