a bunch of games late in the year last year got over 200,000 on CBC. I remember the RSL game at BMO (last home game of the season) getting around 250,000.Originally Posted by menefreghista
In any case, yeah, let's hope the ratings stay somewhat steady.
Actually, only the RSL game got a rating over 200,000 near the end and that was under the new system. The fact that it was an important do or die game helped the rating.
http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showt...1044479&page=4
Taken from BS, TFC ratings in 2009:
April 4 - Seattle at Toronto: 140,000
April 11 - Dallas at Toronto: 135,000
May 2 - Columbus at Toronto: 261,000
May 16 - Chicago at Toronto: 56,000
May 23 - New England at Toronto: 76,000
June 6 - Los Angeles at Toronto: 100,000
July 18 - Houston at Toronto: 51,000
July 29 - Puerto Rico at Toronto: 25,000 (GOL TV)
- MLS All-Star Game: 41,000 (TSN)
August 7 - Real Madrid at Toronto: 91,000 (GOL TV)
August 22 - Toronto at Chivas USA - 40,000 (Sportsnet)
August 29 - Toronto at Seattle - 85,000 (CBC)
Oct. 10 - San Jose at Toronto - 145,000 (CBC)
Oct. 17 - Real Salt Lake at Toronto - 229,000 (CBC)
Sorry the list isn't comprehensive, but you get the general idea.
Well if they keep playing this way, you might see changes.
How do TV ratings even work?! I've always wondered that. God, what a n00b I am.
I don't doubt that at all. If this team started to win consistently and played more attractive football while doing so, the ratings could be pretty good.
They work the same way election polls work. Take a survey of a small portion of the country and then extrapolate.
Ah... how does it work, though, in terms of how they gather their data? I've never been called on the phone asking what TV shows I watch..
In the past a random selection of people would keep a journal of all the stuff they watched and then they would send it in to Neilsen's (or whoever it is that keeps the ratings).
Now they have an electronic device called a 'people meter' that does the work for them.
some people have a recording box attached to their tv....it sends the info to a company
so there wasnt that people watching the game....thats just what they figured it was based on the sample they had.
no...people do not know what your watching on TV
Just gotta say it...that show is terrible.
I gotta say that I am pleased with the airtime that TFC is getting. Before the game on Sunday they were talking about the Reds' game that afternoon on the Edge. I also heard it on Q107 on Friday morning, and on Monday they talked about the win.
I didn't hear anything on any FM stations that I listen to (edge, Q107) last year at all, and now it's all over the place.
This is exactly what we need to expand the knowledge of the MLS.
Didn't want to start a new thread for this, but the game against RSL had a measly 25,000 rating.
http://thestar.blogs.com/sportsmedia...-final-ro.html
not that suprised...saturday night head to head with the NHL and NBA playoffs. I even missed the game and i wasnt watching any sports, i was just hammered at a BBQ that night.
"As for Toronto FC, who can explain the fact its game against Real Salt Lake on Sunday evening drew a paltry 25,000 viewers. Yes, the game was on only two Sportsnet channels (Ontario and Pacific) and it was up against hockey, but Slap Chop infomercials draw better than that."
hahahahaahahahaha
In defence of these paltry numbers i have to say that not alot of people have digital cable and if this game was aired on a basic channel the number of viewers would have been much much greater.. I had to stream this channel for my father and a few of my cousins becuase they don't suscribe to digital tv.
ok a couple factors here.
Sure, TFC is creeping up to Jays numbers....but Jays was on Sportsnet and TFC was on CBC. CBC is a OTA network available in every home in Canada. Sportsnet is a cable channel that doesn't have the same household penetration.
If the jays were on CBC, those numbers would be way higher.
regarding the ratings spikes. Up until last year Nielsen used a Set Top Box where users logged in with their password and the box documented what they were viewing.
as of August 31st 2009, Nielsen switched to a new method called PPM (Personal People Meter) it's a pager that each member of a household wears and gets taken everywhere the person goes. it gets docked at the end of the night and downloads to Nielsen.
what does this mean?
in the old system, it tracked the one users viewing habits. In the new system, if dad is watching the game, then he's being counted, if mom is in the room or in the kitchen but the tv is loud and can be heard, she's being counted too. If the game is on in a bar and someone has the pager on them, they are being counted.
one thing to keep in mind is that, the program doesn't register if the volume is turned down. there absolutely has to be volume.
I work in Broadcast Advertising Sales so Nielsen and ratings and audiences are my language.
if i am right.. and i didn't drink alot that night i do believe that the game was on rogers sportsnet which you actually have to have a digital box.. If the general public had the chance to view the game without having to purchase additional channels the ratings would have been much larger. I stand to be corrected here if im wrong..
What about online streams.. are they considered just pirate tv or do they actually take them into account.footy fans will find the easiest and best way to watch a match.. which leads me to believe that footy followers are the most intelligent and most knowlegeable fans of any sport..
You don't need digital cable to see Sportsnet Ontario.
It wasn't on Ontario, it was on East and 1 other one.
Um, yes it was on in Ontario. This was the MLS match v. RSL from last Saturday.
You are confusing this with the Voyageurs Cup game against Montreal. That game wasn't shown in Ontario.
And you do not need digital cable to get Sportsnet Ontario.
Last edited by menefreghista; 05-05-2010 at 06:32 AM.
That's very interesting Cowboy. Thanks.
I knew the new "people meters" were being carried around by select people (oddly, I have never met one of these "Nielson families" nor met anyone who has ever met one) -- but I didn't realize that the volume on the TV sets mattered.
I'm surprized, therefore, that this has resulted in such large jumps in viewership. From my experience, unless there's a game in which absolutely everybody in the pub is there to watch (EPL on a Saturday morning, Canada gold medal hockey game, Grey Cup, etc) the sound is generally off in the places I drink. In fact, last night everybody in the pub I was at was watching the Habs v Penguins but none of the sets had the volume up.
I'm wondering, how is this "volume data" analyzed? Does the general din of a busy pub effect the ratings, etc? (Google is not helping me here).
digital cable boxes in everyone's homes should be relaying back viewing information everytime a user flips a channel...its easy for them to do, i'd be suprised if they didn't
what can't be grasped are satellite receivers since all they do is receive.
Hummm... I just found something that explains that these "portable people meters" detect hidden audio tones within a station or network's audio stream. Interesting...
I can see how this might effect the ratings of more marginal sports. You go to the bar with a few friends and ask for one television set to be switched to the MLS game while everybody else there watches hockey. Not only is your viewing not registered but because of the hidden audio tones emitted from the other sets you are counted as watching hockey. But I'm sure greater minds than mine have examined and dismissed this little hiccup in their carefully crafted methodology.
it's been discussed and it is a hiccup. But, it's still 1000% more accurate than the old system.
as for digital boxes relaying info back everytime you flip the channel, that will never fly. Privacy advocates would shit all over that. Plus, how would it know if it's just you in the room (adult 25-54) or you in the room with your gf (woman 2554) or with your son (teen 12-17)
not sure if you guys watch the weather network or CP24, but if you do, you may notice text scrolling on their screens now saying "volume down? you're only getting half the news!" because they've seen huge drops in ratings as a lot of people watch that stuff with their TV's muted.
Every channel has a coded audio signal that the human ear can't detect. it sends out the signal to the people meters, so that it doesn't interfere with noisy pubs.
it's not a perfect system, but its much better than what it was. Ideally, the perfect system would be stats sent in everytime you flipped a channel, instead of using sample sizes for each demographic.
also, these People meters are only in Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver. Every other market is still on 3 and 4 week diaries each of the 4 seasons. Example being in Edmonton, you fill out a journal of what you're watching and what time....it's terrible methodology and will eventually change all over to PPM (portable people meters)
back to ratings and audiences though, you'll ALWAYS see higher numbers on the Over the air channels like CBC, CTV, Global rather than sportsnet as Sportsnet is a specialty channel where you need cable or satellite to get.
Yet they keep putting games on Gol TV.
This isn't necessarily on purpose. Gol TV takes all the games that CBC and Sportsnet don't want. They've essentially replaced the leftover games that the Score use to show.
TFC would love it if CBC was willing to broadcast every game.
But CBC is only really interested in weekend afternoon games. Sportsnet only really wants games if they don't conflict with their other programming (particularly the Jays).
Exactly. Instead of being upset that Gol is showing TFC games, we should be bloody grateful that Gol exists in order to show us the TFC games that Sportsnet and CBC don't want ..... otherwise we'd be watching games on The Score with opposition broadcasters as we did in year one and two.
I'll take Gol thanks very much.
B
Don't forget Bold. I remember having to order that a few times in the first couple of seasons to make sure I could get all TFC games. It costs the same as Gol TV, but without all the other awesome content that channel provides.
And that was an internal CBC decision. They already had the rights to those matches but when conflicts came up, they shifted us. Blame CBC in that case, not the club.
Thankfully we don't have to worry about that anymore.
More people have digital cable now than not... Penetration rates with most providers are exceeding 60-70%. And the satellite guys are all digital, so people not having digital cable is no longer a valid excuse.
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