NHL Not Extracting Full Value from Winter Classic Concept

Yesterday the NHL officially confirmed Fenway Park would host next year’s Winter Classic between the Bruins and Flyers. It’s another great choice – historic venue, great hockey town, two traditional teams with tremendous followings – all the makings for another successful event in attendance, ratings, and publicity. The game has become big enough and has [...]

Tiger Sets Model for Recovering Golf’s Image

Everything in golf comes easier when Tiger Woods is involved – sponsorships, TV ratings, attendance, media coverage, energy, excitement, everything. So it’s no surprise that the tournament Tiger hosts, last week’s AT&T National, and Tiger eventually won on the final few holes, scored tremendous ratings and record attendance. But how they drew the attendance opens [...]

Inherent Flaws in Sports Nielsen Ratings

Not exactly a shocking headline, but with the playoffs bringing TV ratings to the forefront it’s relevant. Every news outlet that reports TV ratings for sports events documents both the rating and number of viewers, usually adding the annual change in each number.
Maybe it’s a pet peeve of mine, or I’m making too big a [...]

NBA Cable TV Ratings Proves Point

Games 4 and 5 of both NBA Conference Championship series exceeded 9 million viewers and would have ranked in the Top 10 for the week on broadcast. Game Six for each series, played on the two weakest nights for television ratings – Friday and Saturday – posted solid viewership over 8 million, better than the [...]

Life After Phelps For NBC

Many times the best marketing job and the best promotions can only take television ratings so far. Networks need something special to make the leap to the next level. Enter Michael Phelps. He single-handedly made NBC Must Watch TV for the first time in a decade, boosting Olympic ratings to record setting nights for a [...]

Perfect Storm Damages PGA Tour

When Tiger Woods announced he was done for the season after an historic US Open performance, all eyes were on golf to see if any eyes would watch without Tiger. Greg Norman helped boost generate some interest at the British Open, yet SUnday ratings still tumbled 15% without Woods.
Back in the States, the final major [...]

Now’s The Time for NFL Network

Quick game of word association, first network that comes to mind when I say NFL Draft? ESPN. First person? Mel Kiper, Jr.  Second?  Mel’s hairstylist. Alright, point taken. ESPN has owned the market on NFL draft coverage, building it from an intimate gathering of football faithful into a full-scale event that overshadows the NBA and [...]

CBS Tourney Success Glimpse at Multi-Platform Future

To steal the title line from the signature song of the NCAA tournament’s closing ceremony, CBS’s “one shining moment” of its coverage was the immense success of March Madness On Demand (MMOD). Plagued by uncompetitive games until the finale, and a growing fragmented audience, TV ratings fell to historic lows, yet online viewership grew by [...]

TNT Botches Game Schedule

TNT, along with NBA broadcast partners ESPN and ABC, continue to ride the most provocative NBA season in recent history to big television ratings, taking advantage of teams in the ultra-competitive Western Conference and the re-emergence of the Celtics. Thursday night TNT blew its last regular season opportunity for big ratings.
Each Thursday the NBA schedules [...]