Fox Sports 1 Update

[Jet915]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/maurybrown/2016/07/13/fs1-is-seeing-the-strongest-growth-among-all-national-cable-sports-networks/#1dc4f8ff51e6

“FS1 is already turning a profit,” said Michael Mulvihill, Senior Vice President of Programming, Research, and Content Strategy at FOX. That’s significant given that the FOX national, and FS1 will see the Big 10 Network next year, FOX Sports’ latest live-content programming acquisition that includes around 25 football games and 50 basketball games.

Didnt know they were already making a profit. Great article.

[stever20]

well at the all star break- Fox looks like they're going to have a decent NL playoffs this year.... Not quite as great as last year for Turner where they had New York, LA, Chicago, and St Louis- but still quite possible to have Chicago and New York or LA involved. And Washington/San Francisco. But the Marlins/Cards/Pirates are lurking to possibly knock out New York and Los Angeles. And the Cubs are really struggling(to me, that would be the ko blow)

Turner not looking at a great bunch either.... Baltimore/Cleveland/Texas for division champs- and WC right now would be between Boston/Toronto. A Toronto win and you have a group maybe even worse than what fox had last year....

Only you think this is an actual important thing. It's the playoffs. People are going to watch and the ad spaces are sold long before the season is over and the field is set. It doesn't matter if Miami gets the lest WC spot over NY. The ratings don't matter because they will still be higher than any scripted show that night. They might be lower than previous years but still very high.

The ratings do matter because if they aren't as good as expected, Fox/Turner would have to do make good ads....

Also- not sure what year you are living in- but MLB playoffs absolutely aren't higher than any scripted show. Case in point- the week of the World Series- only game 5 of the World Series beat the top scripted show that week- NCIS- heck Big Bang Theory beat all but game 5 of the World Series as well... And that's the World Series. the ALCS had games where they were drawing fewer than 3 million viewers. There were scripted shows on CW that drew more viewers than that.

[NJRedman]

well at the all star break- Fox looks like they're going to have a decent NL playoffs this year.... Not quite as great as last year for Turner where they had New York, LA, Chicago, and St Louis- but still quite possible to have Chicago and New York or LA involved. And Washington/San Francisco. But the Marlins/Cards/Pirates are lurking to possibly knock out New York and Los Angeles. And the Cubs are really struggling(to me, that would be the ko blow)

Turner not looking at a great bunch either.... Baltimore/Cleveland/Texas for division champs- and WC right now would be between Boston/Toronto. A Toronto win and you have a group maybe even worse than what fox had last year....

Only you think this is an actual important thing. It's the playoffs. People are going to watch and the ad spaces are sold long before the season is over and the field is set. It doesn't matter if Miami gets the lest WC spot over NY. The ratings don't matter because they will still be higher than any scripted show that night. They might be lower than previous years but still very high.

The ratings do matter because if they aren't as good as expected, Fox/Turner would have to do make good ads....

Also- not sure what year you are living in- but MLB playoffs absolutely aren't higher than any scripted show. Case in point- the week of the World Series- only game 5 of the World Series beat the top scripted show that week- NCIS- heck Big Bang Theory beat all but game 5 of the World Series as well... And that's the World Series. the ALCS had games where they were drawing fewer than 3 million viewers. There were scripted shows on CW that drew more viewers than that.

Okay Stever, the world is doomed and we're all gonna die. Gotcha. Major League Baseball will cease to exist and the Big Bang Theory will be our new national past time.

Try reading this article, its from 2 seasons ago but I think it should help you understand.

Buyers said the World Series rates are fair, given the levels of engagement and the DVR-proof environment provided by big-ticket live sports. "It's an older audience, sure, but it's also an audience that's going to see my clients' spots," said one buyer. "I could double- and triple-down on a handful of scripted shows and still not get the same [impressions], thanks to all the time-shifting that's going on."

And it's not as if there's an embarrassment of ratings riches on the rest of the broadcast grid. Two weeks into the 2014-15 TV season, NBC is leading the pack with a 2.8 rating among 18-to-49-year-olds, according to Nielsen, the sort of result that would have led to a series of very public exsanguinations during the "Must-See TV" era.

http://adage.com/article/media/advertis ... me/295331/

[stever20]

Oh there's no doubt for the World Series itself, the teams to a large degree don't matter. But for the LDS and LCS- the teams absolutely do drive the ratings. To act like there would be no difference at all if the playoffs were Washington/Pittsburgh/San Francisco/Miami/St Louis(the worst case scenario)- and like last year's New York/St Louis/Los Angeles/Chicago/Pittsburgh group- is just insane.

Unfortunately MLB has become only the #3 sport. The NFL of course- but also the NBA . NBA got 31 million viewers for game 7 for instance a few weeks ago. And they do very well of course in the 18-49 range. NBA got a 13.7 rating for the finals for all 7 games. MLB averaged a 9.5 for the WS.

[adoraz]

NBA ratings are driven by stars. NBA could not have asked for better circumstances this year. Put any other two teams in the finals and the ratings would be completely different.

Isn't this a bit off topic though? What are we getting at? That MLB isn't a hot property?

[Novachap]

Hate to do it, but watching the evil empire tonight. Nova nominated for 4 ESPYS. Maybe we win a few and yet again espn has to talk about Big East!

[stever20]

NBA ratings are driven by stars. NBA could not have asked for better circumstances this year. Put any other two teams in the finals and the ratings would be completely different.

Isn't this a bit off topic though? What are we getting at? That MLB isn't a hot property?

If it had been Oklahoma City/Cleveland- the ratings would have been good. And great for 18-49's. Game 7 of the NBA had almost as many 18-49 viewers as total viewers for the last game of the WS.

All I was saying originally is that the teams that Fox looks like they're going to be getting will be solid- not quite as great as last year for Turner- but that's a once in a generation type of year. But looking WAY better than the AL.

Baseball though does have a age problem. I saw a tweet somewhere that had median ages for a day a few weeks ago. The median age for MLB was like 55 or something like that. And the NBA definitely skews young. And unfortunately, MLB is trending down, while NBA is trending up.

The MLB isn't a hot property compared to the NBA.

[stever20]

Hate to do it, but watching the evil empire tonight. Nova nominated for 4 ESPYS. Maybe we win a few and yet again espn has to talk about Big East!

a month ago I thought the shot would have to win play of the year. But now, I'm not sure it would win over the block. That block is one of the 2 or 3 most amazing athletic plays that I've ever seen.

[adoraz]

NBA ratings are driven by stars. NBA could not have asked for better circumstances this year. Put any other two teams in the finals and the ratings would be completely different.

Isn't this a bit off topic though? What are we getting at? That MLB isn't a hot property?

If it had been Oklahoma City/Cleveland- the ratings would have been good. And great for 18-49's. Game 7 of the NBA had almost as many 18-49 viewers as total viewers for the last game of the WS.

All I was saying originally is that the teams that Fox looks like they're going to be getting will be solid- not quite as great as last year for Turner- but that's a once in a generation type of year. But looking WAY better than the AL.

Baseball though does have a age problem. I saw a tweet somewhere that had median ages for a day a few weeks ago. The median age for MLB was like 55 or something like that. And the NBA definitely skews young. And unfortunately, MLB is trending down, while NBA is trending up.

The MLB isn't a hot property compared to the NBA.

Yeah obviously MLB has its issues but what I'm saying is NBA ratings are driven by stars more than any other sport. They lucked out with LeBron/Curry being in the finals and it going to game 7. The example you cited was the highest rated NBA game in two decades. Using that game as a benchmark isn't accurate.

[stever20]

true- but the NBA has enough stars out west where whoever the champion is will have a few stars to go up against Lebron(who has won the east what 6 straight years?) Looking- only 2003 and 2007 in the last 15 years had the ratings below an 8. With 6 of the last 7 years being over a 10 rating for the entire series Compare this to MLB where in the 2010's- or 35 games- only 6 games have gotten a 10 rating. With 4 of the 5 lowest rated World Series ever.

MLB- 35 games- 6 getting a 10 rating- so 1 per year on average
NBA- 36 games 2011-16- with 18 getting a 10 rating- so 3 per year on average

that's more than just luck. NBA builds their stars a lot better than MLB does.

I hate that the NBA has passed up MLB- but that's just reality right now....