Fox Sports 1 Update

[Chalmers0]

Cardinals on FS1 tonight. That can't hurt ratings, at least in one market.

Baseball presentation is pretty good so far.

Caught some if it. I though Tom Brennaman was quite boring. He's the Cincy announcer, right? What is he doing on a National game with the Reds playing?

As a Reds fan I've grown more than annoyed of him over the last few years. Always depressing when we end up with a national broadcast on Fox and he is still the announcer. Luckily we get away from him most weekends though, even though his replacement for those isn't really any better for the most part.

[Jet915]

There is only one thing that will be able to save FS1: football.

Basketball has absolutely zero baring on the long term health of FS1. FS1 needs to appeal to the football market in order to get carryover to the basketball games. SEC, Big Ten, and Pac 12 are obviously out. I would go hard for ACC next time the contract expires.

Big Ten deal is up in 2015 so not sure why you are saying they are out. There is a good chance Fox will get some of the Big Ten.

[lolhoya]

lol stever20

For a new network, the rating trendline has to be one of the most important considerations so I'm really glad to see that article. Plus, we know from Ackerman's comments that Fox isn't upset about the ratings. They understand that game way better than any of us do, so if they're happy, I think that's a really good sign.

[stever20]

lol stever20

For a new network, the rating trendline has to be one of the most important considerations so I'm really glad to see that article. Plus, we know from Ackerman's comments that Fox isn't upset about the ratings. They understand that game way better than any of us do, so if they're happy, I think that's a really good sign.

I'm sorry but I don't see it as all that impressive that March with the Big East Tournament would be getting 3 times better ratings than November did(with the garbage that Fox had in November). Now, if Fox had had some really good OOC games and they had gotten good ratings, and March was still 3 times better, than of course, that's huge.

Look at the games that covered the November schedule:
BC @ Providence
UMKC @ Creighton
Tennessee @ Xavier
Grambling @ Marquette
Wright St @ Georgetown
Towson @ Villanova
Vermont @ Providence
Vanderbilt @ Butler
Bucknell @ St John's
Miami (OH) @ Xavier
Delaware @ Villanova
Monmouth @ St John's
Marquette @ Arizona St
Abilene Christian @ Xavier
Longwood @ St John's
Fairfield @ Providence

all of 4 games with teams in top 10 conferences. 3/4 of the games were just dog games. The 4 good games averaged 109k viewers per game. The other 12 games averaged barely 50k viewers per game, and had only 2 games with over 65k viewers. To compare that schedule to the Big East tournament is a joke. If anything, the difference should be a whole lot more than just 3 times better. Basically this study is comparing apples to oranges. The other networks(except for NBCSN- with that Atlantis tournament)- the game levels in November they are airing are almost exactly the same as the games airing in March. So with that, the ratings are going to be a lot more equal.

Bottom line- I think if we air the same garbage OOC games next November that we aired this year, we're going to see pretty much the same exact garbage ratings. Lots of 35,8,31,36,24,39 k viewers(actual number of viewers for 6 of our 16 games aired in November on FS1.) It's tough to get folks to watch garbage teams play. Watching a UMKC/Creighton game just doesn't do it for all but hard core fans.

My problem with the study is that you're trying to compare a game vs UMKC with a BET final game vs Providence. Of course it's a HUGE difference. One that any objective person would see is just way different.

[billyjack]

lol stever20

For a new network, the rating trendline has to be one of the most important considerations so I'm really glad to see that article. Plus, we know from Ackerman's comments that Fox isn't upset about the ratings. They understand that game way better than any of us do, so if they're happy, I think that's a really good sign.

I'm sorry but I don't see it as all that impressive that March with the Big East Tournament would be getting 3 times better ratings than November did(with the garbage that Fox had in November). Now, if Fox had had some really good OOC games and they had gotten good ratings, and March was still 3 times better, than of course, that's huge.

Look at the games that covered the November schedule:
BC @ Providence
UMKC @ Creighton
Tennessee @ Xavier
Grambling @ Marquette
Wright St @ Georgetown
Towson @ Villanova
Vermont @ Providence
Vanderbilt @ Butler
Bucknell @ St John's
Miami (OH) @ Xavier
Delaware @ Villanova
Monmouth @ St John's
Marquette @ Arizona St
Abilene Christian @ Xavier
Longwood @ St John's
Fairfield @ Providence

all of 4 games with teams in top 10 conferences. 3/4 of the games were just dog games. The 4 good games averaged 109k viewers per game. The other 12 games averaged barely 50k viewers per game, and had only 2 games with over 65k viewers. To compare that schedule to the Big East tournament is a joke. If anything, the difference should be a whole lot more than just 3 times better. Basically this study is comparing apples to oranges. The other networks(except for NBCSN- with that Atlantis tournament)- the game levels in November they are airing are almost exactly the same as the games airing in March. So with that, the ratings are going to be a lot more equal.

Bottom line- I think if we air the same garbage OOC games next November that we aired this year, we're going to see pretty much the same exact garbage ratings. Lots of 35,8,31,36,24,39 k viewers(actual number of viewers for 6 of our 16 games aired in November on FS1.) It's tough to get folks to watch garbage teams play. Watching a UMKC/Creighton game just doesn't do it for all but hard core fans.

My problem with the study is that you're trying to compare a game vs UMKC with a BET final game vs Providence. Of course it's a HUGE difference. One that any objective person would see is just way different.

ESPN-U and NBC-SN should be FS1's comparables/targets the first year or two. What games were on ESPN-U and NBC-SN in November and December...? I really don't remember. NBC had Ivy and A-10 games at some point. ESPN-U maybe had C-USA games...?

Bottom line is that FS1's trendlines are going up. Viewers are slowly working FS1 into their rotation of sports channels.

But looking at your "apples to apples", etc.:
November ("apples") vs December ("apples"): there was a 20% increase. So "garbage" games vs "garbage" games increased their viewership as fans started putting FS1 in their rotation.
January ("oranges") vs February ("oranges"): there was a 15% increase. So regular season games improved viewership as the season went on.

FS1 has already matched NBC-SN, CBS-SN (assumed), and is at least equal to ESPN-U.

[TBC Alum]

Can anyone find viewer numbers on BTN (esp compared to FS1 numbers)? I've seen several comments about the Big 10 contract being up next year but am wondering what the numbers would like for them versus doing more in house on BTN.

[stever20]

1 big thing ESPNU and NBCSN had was exempt tournaments. ESPNU had the Puerto Rico QF and 1 of the SF. Also had a NIT SF. Also- 2 Duke games

NBCSN had primarily the Atlantis tournament. Nova/Kansas drew 409k viewers. Iowa/Nova and UTEP/Kansas both had over 200k viewers...

December FS1 had some good games- to even include non BE games..
UNC/UAB drew 276k viewers
Michigan/Stanford drew 229k viewers
and of course the Kentucky/Providence and St John's/Syracuse games.

The Feb increase is largely due to the Georgetown/Michigan St game. That game got 539k viewers. Top game for the channel for the entire month.

To me it seems, when a good game is on there, the ratings are fair. Folks aren't working though to get a dog game. That seems very evident.

Now
here's the apples to apples to me.... If you look at the breakdown of conference games ONLY....
December 83k (granted 5 games, but still, it's 1st games ever for the BE)
January 96.1k
February 107.7k
March- reg season only 123.4k

If they had presented the report in that format than yes, that is definitely good. Also good is of the last 21 regular season telecasts, only 2(Seton Hall/DePaul and Seton Hall/Butler) had fewer than 70k viewers. After of the first 42 conference telecasts a whopping 16 had fewer than 70k viewers. Oh, and, of the final 21 telecasts, not only just 2 sub 70k, but only 5 sub 100k. The question to me will be going forward, is that going to be a normal occurance- as the start of the last 21 telecasts was Feb 16- just when a lot folks start paying attention to college hoops. To me, this is a lot more fair and statistically accurate than comparing conference tournament games to dog ooc games.

Now I still say I'd give FS1 like maybe now looking at this up to like a B-. Still dinged because of the BET. But still, slightly above average

[stever20]

Can anyone find viewer numbers on BTN (esp compared to FS1 numbers)? I've seen several comments about the Big 10 contract being up next year but am wondering what the numbers would like for them versus doing more in house on BTN.

The games currently on BTN will remain. The games that would be up would be all the stuff that's on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU.

[flyerlax06]

I have no problem saying it's a brand new channel. But to say this year is a B+ for FS1 just because ratings went up 200% from dog OOC games in November to March with all the conference tournament games- that's a bit idiotic. Man, I wish I had that grading scale when I was in school. It's really a meaningless comparision and not one to base a grade on this season on at all.

If anything, I'd give this year on FS1 probably like a C. Average. Next year will be a lot more telling, as we'll have year vs year comparisions. I think it will be interesting to see if FS1 with how pathetic some of those OOC games ratings were puts them on FS2 or FSN. They could air anything else and it'd get the same ratings, and wouldn't bring down the overall basketball ratings. Also, will be interesting to see the # of games that CBS and CBSSN have.

Guess you missed the part about it being a B+ on a curved scale.

"Overall, a B+ on a curved scale."

[xu2002]

Personally, I would rather have all my non-conference games, regardless of how bad the competition, with national TV exposure as opposed to being buried on a regional network, ESPN3 streaming or no broadcast at all. The ratings last year are what they are. It was a first year network with little content broadcasting non high profile games, but for Big East fans they can watch every game from every team and anyone else that happens to stumble across the channel can tune in if they'd like.