NBA Low Ratings Compared to NHL Ratings

Egil

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Why should the US media consider Canada?

For a few reasons. First, despite our smallish population, Canada does buy more US goods than any other country on Earth. Second, most brands are available in both the US and Canada. From large items to small items, most are the same. Canada and America have the same brands of cars, have the same fast food restaurants. Most US TV shows are shown in Canada (and the US networks do make money of their sale). Any NA company, which would include most companies sponsoring pro sports, should care about North American TV viewership when making decisions, not simply the US. Obviously, all the ABC or NBC care about are American ratings. But the true comparison for sponsors of the League is the North American market.
 

fullmetalninja

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Jan 11, 2003
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Portland if you don't know the difference between a cable outlet and a network outlet in the ratings (its a *formula* in which a key component is the number of households the channel can reach) then you really can't even participate in the debate.

-fullmetalninja
 

Mr Underhill

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Portland - You’re an idiot. Everything you say is based on simple thoughts and shallow thinking. You bring absolutely NO insight to this discussion. You sound like you should be commentating on Around the Horn. You think everything is as it seems.
 

OG6ix

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Portland - You’re an idiot. Everything you say is based on simple thoughts and shallow thinking. You bring absolutely NO insight to this discussion. You sound like you should be commentating on Around the Horn. You think everything is as it seems.

ok fine, add the NBC numbers.... and the NBA numbers still demolish them.

I'm sure I struck a nerve, it happens with Hockey fans who just don't want to grasp the fact that the sport is a regional niche sport in the US. Keep comparing it to the NBA, NFL, MLB... they all had higher ratings in the past and will all have much higher ratings in the future.

Wasn't NBA game 1 and 2 on ESPN (I dunno I didn't watch it but I could have swear I saw it on Sportscenter with an ESPN ticker)? ESPN is on Cable.

Speaking of Cable...

TNT will wrap up the month of May as the top ad-supported cable network in prime time, averaging 2.6 million total viewers and 1.35 million adults 18-49, thanks in large part to its coverage of the National Basketball Association's playoffs

Meanwhile the NHL is not doing much for versus.
 
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Mr Underhill

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ok fine, add the NBC numbers.... and the NBA numbers still demolish them.

I'm sure I struck a nerve, it happens with Hockey fans who just don't want to grasp the fact that the sport is a regional niche sport in the US. Keep comparing it to the NBA, NFL, MLB... they all had higher ratings in the past and will all have much higher ratings in the future.

Look buddy, nobody wants it to be as big as the NBA, NFL or MLB. WE JUST WANT IT TO BE RESPECTED. WE WANT COVERAGE. It is outrageous how all of a sudden in recent years a sport that has been loved and followed for a 100 years is written off as dead. Is written off as no one cares about it. I dont buy it, and a million other people dont buy it and dont believe what there telling us. Just because a new group of know it alls at ESPN tell you something doesnt mean that we have to believe it. We dont buy it, and these disscusions are to try and make scents of a stupid situation.
 

Mr Underhill

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How many of you people actually believe the crap ESPN tells you about what is popular and what isnt. Let me break the news to most of you. They dont always broadcast what is the most popular, they broadcast what they have invested in. Do any of you think that Arena Football or MLS soccer is worthy of the coverage it gets. HELL NO...and do you know why they dedicate their time to it? Because they invested in the leagues. Just because they tell you that Arean Football is popular doest mean it is.
 

Mr Underhill

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I would be willing to bet that the NHL still has more fans than NASCAR. NASCAR is an individual sports and has no connection to cities. There is no home team in NASCAR. Yes it gets great attendance, but so does the NHL, and if the NHL had one game a week they would sell out huge stadiums too. NASCAR is brand new to the mainsteam public. Nobody knows how its going to turn out.
 

OG6ix

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How many of you people actually believe the crap ESPN tells you about what is popular and what isnt. Let me break the news to most of you. They dont always broadcast what is the most popular, they broadcast what they have invested in. Do any of you think that Arena Football or MLS soccer is worthy of the coverage it gets. HELL NO...and do you know why they dedicate their time to it? Because they invested in the leagues. Just because they tell you that Arean Football is popular doest mean it is.

Are you kidding me? Television numbers are the judge of what's popular... ESPN covers what they can make the most money from i.e. the popular sports. If the NHL was so popular they wouldn't be in the position they are in now. AFL and MLS don't get good coverage and ESPN paid peanuts for MLS.

If the NHL wants respect they should do what nascar did, concentrate on the sport by say marketing it better, rather than just putting teams in markets hoping that they educate themselves or sought out hockey for themselves. Who do they think they are? The NFL?

How did the NBA get popular? Marketing...

In recent years MLB has done some tremendous marketing and they are making a lot of money.

MLS soccer that's 10+ years old is even expierancing growth with marketing.
 

Mr Underhill

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Are you kidding me? Television numbers are the judge of what's popular... ESPN covers what they can make the most money from i.e. the popular sports. If the NHL was so popular they wouldn't be in the position they are in now. AFL and MLS don't get good coverage and ESPN paid peanuts for MLS.

If the NHL wants respect they should do what nascar did, concentrate on the sport by say marketing it better, rather than just putting teams in markets hoping that they educate themselves or sought out hockey for themselves. Who do they think they are? The NFL?

How did the NBA get popular? Marketing...

In recent years MLB has done some tremendous marketing and they are making a lot of money.

MLS soccer that's 10+ years old is even expierancing growth with marketing.

Wrong...again, read this article http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=schreiber_leanne&id=2866241

Your so ignorant. You must believe everything media outlets tell you. People in America really have no choice but to watch ESPN for sports news. There is no other option on par with them.

You will never know what the most popular things are. You only know what ESPN tells you. Of course the NFL is extremely popular...but judging by the complaints it doest deserve year-round coverage. The NHL is obviously more popular than ESPN makes it out to be because one of the top complaints they get is "not enough NHL". The other top complaint they get is "why all of a sudden so much motorsports". NASCAR and motor sports might be popular at the moment (my opinion it is more of a trend than anything) but according to the public complaints it doesnt deserve the amount of coverage it gets.
 

OG6ix

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Wrong...again, read this article http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=schreiber_leanne&id=2866241

Your so ignorant. You must believe everything media outlets tell you. People in America really have no choice but to watch ESPN for sports news. There is no other option on par with them.

You will never know what the most popular things are. You only know what ESPN tells you. Of course the NFL is extremely popular...but judging by the complaints it doest deserve year-round coverage. The NHL is obviously more popular than ESPN makes it out to be because one of the top complaints they get is "not enough NHL". The other top complaint they get is "why all of a sudden so much motorsports". NASCAR and motor sports might be popular at the moment (my opinion it is more of a trend than anything) but according to the public complaints it doesnt deserve the amount of coverage it gets.

OH MY.. you call me ignorant and then present me with an article saying how hockey fans are complaining about coverage? That means it's popular? For all you know it could be 100 fans emailing ESPN, they don't even give a set number. You're in denial, hockey is a regional niche sport in the US, but in Canada it's like the NFL. The facts do not lie.

Can't be ignorant when there are facts proving my points.
 

Mr Underhill

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Typical Question and answer:

Question: '' Why dont you (ESPN) give more hockey coverage".

Answer: "Because you guys dont watch it so why should we cover it".

Explenation: No body is going to watch out of market games if they dont have a reason to watch them. People watch home team games because they know the players, situations, rivalries, and they cheer for their team. If you dont tell them about whats going on in the league, they have no reason to watch. Not every fan is a die-hard fan. That doesnt make them bad fans, or mean they dont like hockey, it just means they dont go to some extremes as others to get their out-of-market league news. Why do you think more casual basketball fans watch the NBA than casual hockey fans watch the NHL? Because the news is more easily heard. They hear about it every day on the countries largest sports news outlet.
 

OG6ix

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Typical Question and answer:

Question: '' Why dont you (ESPN) give more hockey coverage".

Answer: "Because you guys dont watch it so why should we cover it".

Explenation: No body is going to watch out of market games if they dont have a reason to watch them. People watch home team games because they know the players, situations, rivalries, and they cheer for their team. If you dont tell them about whats going on in the league, they have no reason to watch. Not every fan is a die-hard fan. That doesnt make their badans, or they dont like hockey, it just means they dont go to some extremes as others to get their out-of-market league news. Why do you think more casual basketball fans watch the NBA than casual hockey fans watch the NHL? Because the news is more easily heard. They hear about it every day on the countries largest sports news outlet.

Let's see... Basketball is played pretty much everywhere in the US, NCAA basketball is huge and people could follow prospects all the way up to the NBA. Does that answer your question?
 

Mr Underhill

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OH MY.. you call me ignorant and then present me with an article saying how hockey fans are complaining about coverage? That means it's popular? For all you know it could be 100 fans emailing ESPN, they don't even give a set number. You're in denial, hockey is a regional niche sport in the US, but in Canada it's like the NFL. The facts do not lie.

Can't be ignorant when there are facts proving my points.

I think your misinturpreting the article. If she only got a hand full of complaints i dont think it would be worthy enough to mention in a published article. No ones making the NHL out to be some sports jugernaut with billions of fans. We all just think its more popular than ESPN makes it out to be and its real popularity is worthy of more coverage than it gets.
 

Mr Underhill

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Let's see... Basketball is played pretty much everywhere in the US, NCAA basketball is huge and people could follow prospects all the way up to the NBA. Does that answer your question?

This doesnt mean a damn thing. I personaly know a lot of people who like NCAA basketball but hate the NBA. Im not compairing the amount of fans the NBA has with the amount the NHL has, im sure the NBA has more. Im just saying that the casual NBA fans watch more national games because they know more about whats happening in the league. Casual NHL fans dont watch national games as much because they dont know about the out of market teams or any happenings in the league. Thats not because they dont care its because they dont hear about it. If they heard more about whats going on they might actually look for VS. on their tv.
 

Doc Scurlock

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Wrong...again, read this article http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/columns/story?columnist=schreiber_leanne&id=2866241

Your so ignorant. You must believe everything media outlets tell you. People in America really have no choice but to watch ESPN for sports news. There is no other option on par with them.

You will never know what the most popular things are. You only know what ESPN tells you. Of course the NFL is extremely popular...but judging by the complaints it doest deserve year-round coverage. The NHL is obviously more popular than ESPN makes it out to be because one of the top complaints they get is "not enough NHL". The other top complaint they get is "why all of a sudden so much motorsports". NASCAR and motor sports might be popular at the moment (my opinion it is more of a trend than anything) but according to the public complaints it doesnt deserve the amount of coverage it gets.

To gauge what people complain about it would probably be best if the article actually had some numbers otherwise everything is just arbitrary. Nowhere in the article does it say "not enough NHL" is their number one or even top complaint. This whole article isn't even about that, it's about ESPN pushing the leagues they have an interest in like the Arena Football League.

It's no wonder the most common category of complaint I receive as ESPN ombudsman is about perceived conflicts of interest.

In the article that's the category that gets the most complaints. She then gives you examples of what falls into that category, NHL, NASCAR, NFL etc. Nowhere does she say that the majority of our complaints are from pissed off hockey fans.
 

Mr Underhill

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To gauge what people complain about it would probably be best if the article actually had some numbers otherwise everything is just arbitrary. Nowhere in the article does it say "not enough NHL" is their number one or even top complaint. This whole article isn't even about that, it's about ESPN pushing the leagues they have an interest in like the Arena Football League.



In the article that's the category that gets the most complaints. She then gives you examples of what falls into that category, NHL, NASCAR, NFL etc. Nowhere does she say that the majority of our complaints are from pissed off hockey fans.

She doesnt have to give numbers. The acticle is about what people complain about what they want to see and what ESPN shows. The fact that she mentions hockey fans as one of the first things speaks for it self. She wouldnt mention it first if it wasnt a big issue. The guy in the arcticle said their doing more NASCAR because it is a market thats not get the right attention. Well now their giving the NASCAR market attention and their alienating the hockey market.
 

Doc Scurlock

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She doesnt have to give numbers. The acticle is about what people complain about what they want to see and what ESPN shows. The fact that she mentions hockey fans as one of the first things speaks for it self. She wouldnt mention it first if it wasnt a big issue.

That doesn't mean anything. She's talking about how ESPN's pushing of other sports that they have an interest in is taking up time on Sportscentre from other sports. What league does ESPN not have an interest in? The NHL. What does that mean? Less time on Sportscentre. What does that mean in the context of this article? It means the writer was using the NHL as an example of how ESPN tends to favor sports that it has an interest in.

Considering the NHL used to be on ESPN and now it's not makes it a perfect subject to base your article on as it gives you the before and after effect of being supported by ESPN and not being supported by ESPN, hence why she bothers mentioning hockey in her list of complaints.
 

frivolousz21

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in st louis...our local sports radio was chastized for talking nba at all..and not talking NHL...so much so....they aired the NHL finals radio broadcast..and the week that the finals were played...all of a sudden there were interviews with NHL players or broadcasters.

one weekend in the playoffs the redwings vs calgary got a 2.6 here...the nba game got a 1.1
 

Mr Underhill

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in st louis...our local sports radio was chastized for talking nba at all..and not talking NHL...so much so....they aired the NHL finals radio broadcast..and the week that the finals were played...all of a sudden there were interviews with NHL players or broadcasters.

one weekend in the playoffs the redwings vs calgary got a 2.6 here...the nba game got a 1.1

There are probably stories like this in cities all over the U.S. and there good to hear because it shows the truth behind how many people want to hear about the game.
 

Mr Underhill

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That doesn't mean anything. She's talking about how ESPN's pushing of other sports that they have an interest in is taking up time on Sportscentre from other sports. What league does ESPN not have an interest in? The NHL. What does that mean? Less time on Sportscentre. What does that mean in the context of this article? It means the writer was using the NHL as an example of how ESPN tends to favor sports that it has an interest in.

Considering the NHL used to be on ESPN and now it's not makes it a perfect subject to base your article on as it gives you the before and after effect of being supported by ESPN and not being supported by ESPN, hence why she bothers mentioning hockey in her list of complaints.

If it doesnt mean anything than why didnt she write about the few people who write in requesting poker coverage on sportscenter or more MLS highlights or whatever you think people really want to watch. The reason she chose those subject is because that is the best sample of the complaints she receives the most.
 

OG6ix

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There are probably stories like this in cities all over the U.S. and there good to hear because it shows the truth behind how many people want to hear about the game.

That's why I said it's a regional niche sport. There are pockets of really good hockey cities.. I.E. Buffalo, Philly, Detroit, Minnesota...
 

Skraut

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Of course the NBA final's numbers are down. Everybody knows you only watch the last 5 minutes of the 4th quarter of basketball, as those 5 minutes last 45 minutes, and are generally the only exciting part of the game. So far with the finals this season, ya turn it on for a few seconds, see it's gonig to be a blowout, and then you turn it off.

I mean seriously, How many millions of people checked the score at the end of the Soprano's only to decide that the game wasn't going to be interesting?
 

Mr Underhill

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That's why I said it's a regional niche sport. There are pockets of really good hockey cities.. I.E. Buffalo, Philly, Detroit, Minnesota...

...Pittsburg, St. Louis, Tampa, Dallas, Denver, most all of the north. And based on attendance most every market including San Jose, Anaheim, and New York. So based on your perception of a niche sport NASCAR has to be the biggest. I.E. mostly popular in the south and parts of California and Penn.. Are you saying if a sport isnt played everywhere in the U.S. by everyone its a niche sport. Well if that was the case you can say tennis and golf are niche sports for wealthy white people, and soccer which is played by everyone in there lifetime should be wildly popular. Once you start calling everthing niche sports then your starting to reach. What makes you think the NHL is all of a sudden dead in America. Did all the fans they had die. The core fans are still there, but the casual fans arnt watching because all they hear about is how it some how its suddently irrelevant.
 
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