Tag: ratings

XFL ratings drop again in Week 4

We kind of knew this was going to happen. Here are the XFL ratings for Week 4. #XFL Week 4 Ratings Saturday 2/29 ABC: Wildcats @ Guardians 1.558 million viewers Fox: Dragons @ BattleHawks 1.802 million viewers Sunday 3/1 FS1: Roughnecks @ Renegades …

We kind of knew this was going to happen. Here are the XFL ratings for Week 4.

Those are the numbers, but let’s add a little context. The XFL had its viewership numbers drop in three out of the four games from Week 3 to Week 4. Numbers actually went up slightly for the game on FS1 on Sunday.

There’s actually some good news throughout the ratings. First, the XFL actually outrated the NFL Scouting Combine on ABC — which followed the XFL game on Saturday. That’s good. People preferred to watch real football over players working out.

There’s also some good news because this could have been a bad weekend for the XFL. The NBA had some marquee games on. The NCAA is entering its drive to conference tournaments and important conference matchups were on this weekend. MLS had its season kick-off which pushed the XFL game to ESPN2 and losing 500,000 viewers for that game isn’t bad when considering the move to a secondary cable network.

The hope for the XFL has to be that this is the bottom. They can tread water with viewership numbers between one and two million and once the playoffs start there should be a natural boost due to curiosity at a minimum. If these numbers are what the XFL is going to do consistently, that’s not half-bad. It takes time to build interest.

There’s another side to this coin. If the XFL downward trend continues, that’s a huge problem. No one wants to watch something that other people aren’t watching. It’s the whole self-fulfilling prophecy where the XFL is losing viewers which will then cause more viewers to not keep interest. What’s the point of watching?

The hope for the XFL is that this is the bottom. This was their most difficult weekend to date. The problem is that might not be true. We are about to enter March Madness. There will be a weekend with the Masters. There will be bigger NBA games. By the time the XFL gets passed the NCAA tournament, they will have other competition to deal with. Week 5 could be crucial.

XFL Ratings dip again, but is it cause for concern?

XFL Week 3 ratings dropped from Week 2 ratings which dropped from Week 1 ratings. Where is the bottom?

When the AAF had great ratings for its first week, a lot of people overreacted to the news and said a new era of extra football had begun. Then the AAF flamed out miserably and was the subject of many a long-form commentary. The XFL had some really strong numbers when it came to viewership in its first week and I am happy to report it seems like we all learned our lesson. Everyone seemed to wait with bated breath to find out what XFL ratings would look like in Week 2 and Week 3. Unfortunately for the XFL, the answer seems to be: not great.

Now, here is the silver lining. The XFL had two games on cable this weekend and ratings are always lower on cable because people either don’t have access to it — mostly by choice, but sometimes by circumstance — so they had to expect that ratings would dip since half the games weren’t on broadcast.

The problem is that they’ve now lost almost half of their Week 1 viewers. The product doesn’t seem to be sticking. There needs to be a bottom, but we don’t know where that bottom is.

The easy answer would be to simply try and get more games on broadcast networks, but it doesn’t work that way. The XFL can’t simply tell television distributors what to do to boost league viewership numbers. They can ask. After all, the XFL is probably still doing better numbers than traditional shows, but that doesn’t mean their TV partners will comply. Cable channels need their schedules filled as well and the XFL is the perfect filler.

The real issue is that the XFL may be in a battle with perception. The more ratings drop, the more it looks like the league is struggling. The more it looks like the league is struggling, the less likely fans will be willing to invest their time and effort into finding games and watching them all the way through. That leads to even lower ratings. It’s a circular self-fulfilling prophecy. By the way, the XFL has seven more weeks in its season. There has to be a bottom, but we just don’t know where it is yet.

The good news is that if the league can hold on and get to the playoffs, people will watch — if for novelty reasons only. Once the league lasts a year, it can start to gain more traction and viewers will feel more comfortable investing that time, effort, and hopefully money. It could be a bumpy seven weeks, but the goal should be to hold out for as long as possible. That all depends on how much money the league plans to use in the process of staying alive.

In contrast to national trend, Rockets see higher local TV ratings

Compared to last year, overall local and national TV ratings are down for the 2019-20 NBA season. However, they’re up for the Rockets.

Though television ratings around the NBA are largely down in the 2019-20 season to date, they’re up for local telecasts in Houston.

According to data through the All-Star break compiled by the Sports Business Journal (SBJ), the average rating (2.26) of Rockets’ broadcasts on AT&T SportsNet Southwest is up 4% from the same 2018-19 period.

Last year’s Rockets were coming off more success in the previous season, having won a franchise-record 65 games in 2017-18 and advanced to Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals. By comparison, these Rockets are coming off a 2018-19 campaign with just 53 wins and an elimination in six games during the second round of the playoffs.

Nonetheless, the offseason trade for Russell Westbrook seems to have sparked additional relative interest, especially on a local level. While ratings for Rockets’ telecasts are up by 4%, the league’s overall average on local broadcasts is down 13% from last season.

The SBJ analysis studied 27 of the league’s 30 teams, with data on Utah, Memphis, and Toronto not available. Of those 27, a majority posted ratings drops, and 13 had declines of 19 percentage points or more.

Nationally, television broadcasts of NBA games on ABC, ESPN, and TNT are down 12% this season. According to SBJ’s figures, ABC is down 16%, TNT down 13%, and ESPN down 10%.

Part of the decline in national TV numbers is attributable to Golden State, which has the league’s worst record this season but has still received a healthy share of national broadcasts based on their pedigree as five-time defending Western Conference champions. Per SBJ data, ratings for local Warriors broadcasts are down 66% from a year ago.

The Rockets (34-20) return to play Thursday with a road game against those Warriors (12-43), with tip-off scheduled for 9:30 p.m. Central time in an exclusive national TNT broadcast. Given their record, that game probably won’t help the league’s ratings decline on a national level.

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Week 2 XFL ratings dip but numbers are comparatively strong

It’s not always bad news when ratings dip. It’s not good news, but it’s not bad news. That’s what the XFL should be telling themselves. In the “no duh” of breaking news, the XFL lost viewers from last week, but it’s not so black and white. The – …

It’s not always bad news when ratings dip. It’s not good news, but it’s not bad news. That’s what the XFL should be telling themselves. In the “no duh” of breaking news, the XFL lost viewers from last week, but it’s not so black and white.

The — second really since the first iteration was years ago — inaugural Saturday of the XFL garnered almost 1.2 million fewer viewers than the first weekend of the second launch of the XFL — 3.3 million in Week 1 versus 2.12 in Week 2. There wasn’t as large of a dip on Sunday where Week 1 had 2.5 million viewers but only averaged 2.39 million viewers on ABC in Week 2. It’s important to point out that Week 1 was on ESPN and Week 2 was on ABC. If Week 2 was on ESPN, we probably would see a similar ratio drop closer to the Saturday numbers.

Now, here’s the real bright side: those numbers aren’t bad comparably. Sure, it’s not the NFL, but those numbers outrate a lot of marquee NBA games this season. They didn’t outrate the All-Star game, but it did get more viewers than big games that have happened this year. Everything needs to be judged comparably because nothing will ever hit the NFL. The fact that the XFL — with its weak quarterback play and general low scores — have outrated other professional sports options is a win.

Now, it’s time for the coaches to buy in on some of the excitement we were promised. It’s impossible to tell coaches what to do, but the XFL has been boring. There need to be double forward passes. Teams need to go for a three-point conversion. Run the option. Do something, anything to make it not just regular football with less talented players. That’s how the XFL sticks. Otherwise, we could see ratings dip a lot more until the playoffs hit.

Seahawks vs. Eagles game most-watched TV event since Super Bowl LIII

The Seattle Seahawks’ wild-card round clash with the Philadelphia Eagles was the most-watched NFL game since Super Bowl LIII last year.

The Seattle Seahawks’ 17-9 wild card victory over the Philadelphia Eagles has already been well-documented, but it turned out to be strong in the TV-ratings department as well.

According to NBC, the game was not only the most-watched NFL game since Super Bowl LIII last year but also the most-viewed television event since then.

A whopping 82% of TVs in the Seattle area were tuned to the game. Here’ a look at some of the numbers in other markets that were monitored as well.

Seahawks wide receiver DK Metcalf put on a show with a postseason debut to remember and the two teams kept the game close throughout. Quarterback Russell Wilson had quite a few moments of his own and even Marshawn Lynch got in on the action with a touchdown.

Seattle ultimately prevailed and will face the Green Bay Packers on the road on Sunday. The NFL postseason ratings should only increase as we delve into the divisional round.

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