2018-19 TV Ratings Thread

[awhom111]

The Louisville game averaged 1,875,000 viewers.

Here is more information for various demographic groups (rating is percentage of that group watching the game on average):
18-49: 64
F18-49: .45
M18-49: .84
18-34: .53
F12-34: .27
M12-34: .62
25-54: .73
50+: .84

[brevity]

The Louisville game averaged 1,875,000 viewers.

Interesting.

Days, weeks, months, and years from now, when about 10 million people will swear that they watched this game live, we'll know that 8,125,000 of them were, on average, lying.

[NSDukeFan]

Interesting.

Days, weeks, months, and years from now, when about 10 million people will swear that they watched this game live, we'll know that 8,125,000 of them were, on average, lying.

Hey, I was in Canada and wasn’t included in those numbers. (Mind you I only watched the first half live and finished watching the next morning, if that affects viewership.)

[MChambers]

Interesting.

Days, weeks, months, and years from now, when about 10 million people will swear that they watched this game live, we'll know that 8,125,000 of them were, on average, lying.

If you recorded it and watched it the next day, how does that count? Asking for a friend who doesn't like to stay up late.

[JNort]

If you recorded it and watched it the next day, how does that count? Asking for a friend who doesn't like to stay up late.

I was under the impression recording it counted as a view even if you never play it later.

[NSDukeFan]

If you recorded it and watched it the next day, how does that count? Asking for a friend who doesn't like to stay up late.

Thanks for asking for me MChambers. I appreciate it. 😀

[sagegrouse]

Interesting.

Days, weeks, months, and years from now, when about 10 million people will swear that they watched this game live, we'll know that 8,125,000 of them were, on average, lying.

I'd like to see the ratings by half-hour, in order to understand whether the Louisville fans who tuned in matched the Duke fans who said, "Enough!"

[awhom111]

Interesting.

Days, weeks, months, and years from now, when about 10 million people will swear that they watched this game live, we'll know that 8,125,000 of them were, on average, lying.

Well if nobody watched the 1st hour and 45 minutes and then 10 million people watched the rest of the game then I guess the math would work.

Hey, I was in Canada and wasn’t included in those numbers. (Mind you I only watched the first half live and finished watching the next morning, if that affects viewership.)

We can give you a pass since you're even further out timezone-wise. In most countries, ratings are counted the same way. A person who watched half of the broadcast would count as half a person in the final viewership. Basically the total minutes viewed is estimated by how many minutes the people in the sample watched and then divided by the length of the broadcast to determine average viewership.

If you recorded it and watched it the next day, how does that count? Asking for a friend who doesn't like to stay up late.

The number that I usually post here is live viewing and recorded viewing until 3am local time. Generally speaking, the percentage of people who don't watch sports live is very small.

I was under the impression recording it counted as a view even if you never play it later.

Not for these ratings. Some people may have set top boxes that communicate that sort of information to their provider or to third party data collectors, but I have never seen that sort of information made public.

I'd like to see the ratings by half-hour, in order to understand whether the Louisville fans who tuned in matched the Duke fans who said, "Enough!"

That would be nice, but ESPN is probably the only entity that has all of that level of detail and this probably was not a big enough deal for them to tout in a press release. Some of the ratings departments at other networks are much more likely to share interesting tidbits.

[JNort]

Interesting! So how does it works for a bar? Only 4 or 5 tv's have the game on but 50 people watching?

[awhom111]

Interesting! So how does it works for a bar? Only 4 or 5 tv's have the game on but 50 people watching?

Traditional ratings take no measurements of its sample outside of their households so bar viewing is not included in these numbers. Remember that the main use of ratings is to price advertising so advertisers have always been fine with lower ratings and research suggests that people watching in bars pay even less attention to commercials than people watching at home. The use of ratings as positive publicity is more of a secondary benefit, which is why channels like HBO that do not have advertisements do order numbers so that they can talk about how popular Game of Thrones is while also getting data to help them schedule their movies.

Understandably sports is often viewed outside of the home so ESPN finally convinced some advertisers to pay based on totals including out of home viewership so they paid Nielsen more money to collect that information and now other channels pay for those measurements as well. Generally, the only time that we get the information is when the channels themselves put it press releases. It increases the total of course, but not by extreme amounts based on what we have seen.

[BandAlum83]

I don't follow this thread, so maybe this has been talked about upthread, but I saw something that caught my attention on Coach Ks television show this morning.

K was talking about how February is so important for college basketball and how teams get desperate, coaches work to keep jobs, and individual players position for NBA attention. All that is to say, they come gunning for the big dogs (Duke) and it gets crazy.

But then he also mentioned it is sweeps month for TV as well.

It made me wonder if TV has affected the ACC schedule. Is this the reason we play Carolina so late in the season now? Has television determined that?

[arnie]

I don't follow this thread, so maybe this has been talked about upthread, but I saw something that caught my attention on Coach Ks television show this morning.

K was talking about how February is so important for college basketball and how teams get desperate, coaches work to keep jobs, and individual players position for NBA attention. All that is to say, they come gunning for the big dogs (Duke) and it gets crazy.

But then he also mentioned it is sweeps month for TV as well.

It made me wonder if TV has affected the ACC schedule. Is this the reason we play Carolina so late in the season now? Has television determined that?

The answer to your question I’m sure is yes. More unbelievable, we’re going to be involved in ESPN Game Day again next Saturday at Syracuse. That will be 3 times, and the 4th will surely be at the Cheats.

[sagegrouse]

I don't follow this thread, so maybe this has been talked about upthread, but I saw something that caught my attention on Coach Ks television show this morning.

K was talking about how February is so important for college basketball and how teams get desperate, coaches work to keep jobs, and individual players position for NBA attention. All that is to say, they come gunning for the big dogs (Duke) and it gets crazy.

But then he also mentioned it is sweeps month for TV as well.

It made me wonder if TV has affected the ACC schedule. Is this the reason we play Carolina so late in the season now? Has television determined that?

Arnie has the right answer. Let's talk calendar. College hoops has its greatest exposure from the end of the Super Bowl, first Sunday in February, through the Final Four, usually the first weekend in April (this year April 6-8). That's two months. The networks want the best games to be shown during this time.

I think it's great, and I am happy there is a time of year when the overall sports calendar helps college basketball reach peak popularity. The timing is really pretty good. The NFL is done. April marks the beginning of playoffs for the NBA and the NHL, plus the Masters golf tournament (a CBS showing like the Final Four) and the beginning of the baseball season (which usually begins the week of the Final Four).

[jv001]

Arnie has the right answer. Let's talk calendar. College hoops has its greatest exposure from the end of the Super Bowl, first Sunday in February, through the Final Four, usually the first weekend in April (this year April 6-8). That's two months. The networks want the best games to be shown during this time.

I think it's great, and I am happy there is a time of year when the overall sports calendar helps college basketball reach peak popularity. The timing is really pretty good. The NFL is done. April marks the beginning of playoffs for the NBA and the NHL, plus the Masters golf tournament (a CBS showing like the Final Four) and the beginning of the baseball season (which usually begins the week of the Final Four).

The Masters usually is the time I begin getting what's left of my golf game ready for the year. As I've grown older, I have begun to hate winter almost as much as I hate the cheats. Well, maybe not that bad. GoDuke!

[awhom111]

The North Carolina State game averaged 1,859,000 viewers.

Here is more information for various demographic groups (rating is percentage of that group watching the game on average):
18-49: .57
F18-49: .37
M18-49: .77
18-34: .47
F12-34: .28
M12-34: .49
25-54: .66
50+: .90

[hallcity]

"Last night’s marquee college basketball game between No. 8 North Carolina and No. 1 Duke (9 p.m. ET, ESPN) delivered a 3.2 overnight rating, making it the third highest-rated regular season college basketball game* on ESPN. The historic rivalry game is now highest rated college basketball game of the season across all networks."
https://espnmediazone.com/us/press-r...cord-for-espn/

And, it wasn't much of a game. And lots of people were watching the ACC Network broadcast instead of the ESPN broadcast. BTW, after the real ACC Network starts, will there be a second broadcast feed for Duke-UNC?

[awhom111]

The ESPN broadcast averaged 4,343,000 viewers.

Here is more information for various demographic groups (rating is percentage of that group watching the game on average):
18-49: 1.73
F18-49: .93
M18-49: 2.53
18-34: 1.68
F12-34: .74
M12-34: 2.01
25-54: 1.75
50+: 1.65

It will probably be a while before we can measure the impact of the ACC Network broadcast on NBC's ratings in the Triangle.

[hallcity]

North Carolina’s win against Duke delivered a Nielsen reported audience of 4,343,000 viewers, making it the most-viewed weeknight men’s college basketball game in ESPN history*, surpassing the previous record of 4,140,000 viewers, which was set by another UNC-Duke matchup on February 18, 2015.

The Rivalry Week matchup ranks as the fifth most-watched college basketball game in ESPN history, and is the most-watched college basketball game on ESPN since 2014 (Duke at Syracuse).

Season-to-date, men’s college basketball on ESPN is up 15 percent year over year. ESPN networks have aired the 82 most-viewed games on cable, including four of the top five across all networks.

https://espnmediazone.com/us/press-r...hxSVMU.twitter

[uh_no]

North Carolina’s win against Duke delivered a Nielsen reported audience of 4,343,000 viewers, making it the most-viewed weeknight men’s college basketball game in ESPN history*, surpassing the previous record of 4,140,000 viewers, which was set by another UNC-Duke matchup on February 18, 2015.

The Rivalry Week matchup ranks as the fifth most-watched college basketball game in ESPN history, and is the most-watched college basketball game on ESPN since 2014 (Duke at Syracuse).

Season-to-date, men’s college basketball on ESPN is up 15 percent year over year. ESPN networks have aired the 82 most-viewed games on cable, including four of the top five across all networks.

https://espnmediazone.com/us/press-r...hxSVMU.twitter

Some good advertising for Nike, then!

[awhom111]

Around 25 percent of the television homes in the Triangle were watching the game on average (not counting the online feeds). Slightly more were watching the ACC Network feed than the ESPN feed on average, but that did not affect the national NBC ratings too much (if the NBC affiliate in Charlotte had picked up the ACC Network it probably would have had a noticeable overall impact).