 |
| TV Ratings (share of TVs tuned to the event) |
 |
| Total Estimated Viewership |
My first calendar year staying close to MLS television ratings has come to a close. Overall, it was informative and rewarding. I'll keep a close eye on it going forward but likely not with the same intensity.
The figures above chart both "ratings" and "viewership" for each of the 20 MLS Cup finals on ABC / ESPN. In recent years, MLS has been expanding to other platforms and networks like Univision Deportes and Unimas, but there isn't enough data there yet to get any sort of trend like ESPN. Important to not that Unimas did do well last year with LA market and Landon Donovan in the final, but I don't expect ratings to stay strong there over time and certainly not for a Columbus / Portland final.
Tracking ESPN is the cleanest way to evaluate how well the league is doing over the years.
It's important to look at these charts with a larger perspective, but it's not particularly needed. It's easy to see that ratings are trending down. In fact, this last Cup Final was the lowest rated Final in MLS history at 0.4 (which generously includes an extra 80k from Univision Deportes, ESPN notched a 0.3 rating according to Sports TV Ratings dot com). What that figure means is a share of televisions tuned to the event. With people migrating away from traditional cable (ie. cord-cutting) that's the one to keep an eye on. A "0.4" rating means less than one-half of one percent of all televisions on were tuned to MLS. The
lowest in league history.
No doubt that MLS's target market contributed to the low figure as the 4:25 PM EST / 1:25 PM PST kickoff is right when NFL games kickoff. On the east coast, the afternoon game is usually the most watched event of the day (NFL games get astronomical ratings, 10-20 million tune-in regularly).
One general myth you see out there is that there are fewer people watching TV via traditional means. Live event programming has never been stronger (ie. sports programming) in the history of the medium. While cable subscriptions are relatively flat over the last five years on ESPN, they are up in on other networks. People are still buying TV by the zillions and sports leagues are making zillions from it.
I'll leave this post with one final chart. What is shows is ESPN viewership by program for the entire day of Sunday, December 6th, 2015. MLS is the 668k figure. Looking at it this way shows me that a college football playoff show was a lead in. I think that likely saved MLS from severe embarrassment.
------------------------------
12:30 AM SPORTSCENTER 1AM
6:00 AM COLLEGE FOOTBALL REPEAT
6:30 AM NFL MATCH-UP
7:00 AM SPORTSCENTER WEEKEND-AM
8:00 AM SPORTSCENTER WEEKEND-AM
9:00 AM NFL INSIDERS: SUNDAY
10:00 AM NFL COUNTDOWN
12:00 PM CFP RANKINGS SHOW
4:00 PM MLS PLAYOFFS
6:41 PM SPORTSCENTER EARLY
7:30 PM SPORTSCENTER EARLY
8:30 PM CHAMPIONSHIP DRIVE
11:00 PM SPORTSCENTER LATE
