Wk 3 Viewership

[4th&long]

Underperforming Sat

Strong Sunday

https://athlonsports.com/nation/ufl/new ... tv-ratings
(Mike Mitchell)

SAT
DC-AR 1 p.m. (ESPN): 534,000 viewers
Memphiis - Birm 7 p.m. (FOX): 837,000 viewers

I was more concerned that Fox with 2 very small TV markets would not hit my target (1mm) but I actually upped my ESPN # from 700k to 825k based on two big mkts and prior games.  Both underperformed. 

SUN
Houston-Mich, noon (ABC): 974,000 viewers
Stl - SA, 3 p.m. (ABC): 1.023 million viewers

Pretty much net-net on the money - actually ahead - I had 1925k total and here we see 1997.  Great showing on ABC after underperforming last Saturday.

842k average for the week.  vs 845 last week.  Consistent in total.
YTD Avg by net: Fox=1054k 4 games, ABC=968k 3 games, ESPN=764k 5 games
 

[MGB01]

Success, the OTA strategy is working as intended. The challenge is getting anybody to watch sports on cable (yes, now even ESPN) in the off months when it isn't NCAAFB/BB, NBA playoffs, or NFL draft, so nothing that wasn't anticipated. Interestingly enough most of the ballyhooed Caitlin Clark matchups are set for ESPN, not ABC or CBS.

This weekend will take a bit of a hit with the one FS1 game, thankfully this happens to be 0-3 vs 0-3 (although Arlington is more schedule-killed whereas Houston is just CurBucked so hardly equal), so write that one off and go forward. They'll do well everywhere else.

[XFL4ever]

Nice to see another game breaking the "million mark" as I call it. ESPN early Saturday could've been stronger but I'll take it ! 

[4th&long]

Attendance high or low is again showing no impact on viewership.

[MGB01]

True, but it is part of the next step--revenue, which explains the NHL and MLS despite lesser TV audiences.

[4th&long]

True, but it is part of the next step--revenue, which explains the NHL and MLS despite lesser TV audiences.

 

Agreed - more so even for NHL as they have 41 home games - vs what 17 for MLS?  Also NHL does get local TV money.
But MLS has to start getting TV ratings or they are near their ceiling.

And Baseball 81 games+local TV like NHL but much more so.

But UFL ONLY has 5 home games - so tix revenue is going to be limited - even if they get 20k paying a game, with StL the outlier.  It's a TV first league.

[BattleHawks]

OTA TV ratings mean absolutely nothing to MLS,

they sold all of their TV rights to Apple, for $2.5 Billion

their side deal with FOX exists only to lure in new subscribers


 

[laxtreme56]

True, but it is part of the next step--revenue, which explains the NHL and MLS despite lesser TV audiences.


 

Agreed - more so even for NHL as they have 41 home games - vs what 17 for MLS?  Also NHL does get local TV money.
But MLS has to start getting TV ratings or they are near their ceiling.

And Baseball 81 games+local TV like NHL but much more so.

But UFL ONLY has 5 home games - so tix revenue is going to be limited - even if they get 20k paying a game, with StL the outlier.  It's a TV first league.

MLS plays 30+ regular season games, plus various cups and tournaments in-season which helps the  bottom line. Ratings are abysmal, even losing out the low (er) division soccer, USL two weeks ago, but Apple+ is their bread and butter. Similar to the US army sponsorship criticisms the UFL been dealt, so has the value of Apple's MLS investment, but that's a whole other story.

Regardless, the UFL will need to shore up it's attendance over the next 2 years or so. Even 15k spectators at $30 a ticket is an extra $20 million in revenue per year. That's before counting revenue from parking, concessions, and merchandise sales as well. For reference, the UFL is on track for $20-25 million in TV revenue this season 
​

[4th&long]

True, but it is part of the next step--revenue, which explains the NHL and MLS despite lesser TV audiences.




 

Agreed - more so even for NHL as they have 41 home games - vs what 17 for MLS?  Also NHL does get local TV money.
But MLS has to start getting TV ratings or they are near their ceiling.

And Baseball 81 games+local TV like NHL but much more so.

But UFL ONLY has 5 home games - so tix revenue is going to be limited - even if they get 20k paying a game, with StL the outlier.  It's a TV first league.

MLS plays 30+ regular season games, plus various cups and tournaments in-season which helps the  bottom line. Ratings are abysmal, even losing out the low (er) division soccer, USL two weeks ago, but Apple+ is their bread and butter. Similar to the US army sponsorship criticisms the UFL been dealt, so has the value of Apple's MLS investment, but that's a whole other story.

Regardless, the UFL will need to shore up it's attendance over the next 2 years or so. Even 15k spectators at $30 a ticket is an extra $20 million in revenue per year. That's before counting revenue from parking, concessions, and merchandise sales as well. For reference, the UFL is on track for $20-25 million in TV revenue this season 
​

Yeah thats 34 total games and 17 home games which is what I meant - not that many, vs 5 home games in UFL, 41 in NHL/NBA, 81 in MLB.  As far as Apple deal - MLS pays the production cost for all those games and get $250mm a year from Apple over 29 teams. 

The UFL tv revenue is from the nettworks  we really do not know what they are paying, only what they are charging for ads and that was only in one article. Yeah Fox (and disney too) is paying UFL (ie 50% is Fox's anyway) Plus they have the Army sponsorship and others like progressive and Pods.  But we'll never know until a deal is made public.