Skating Ratings Shock Espn (Hirsh article)

Hersh article on skating ratings

Phil Hersh has an article about ratings for the World Championships, which ESPN says were terrible -- much lower than the network anticipated. Even "adjusted" for cable ratings, they weren't good. Also talks about Dick Button's absence (Cinquanta denies that the ISU blocked his presence, but there are rumors to that effect), and quotes an ESPN source as saying that the ratings indicate that "skating is dead" in the U.S. and the network will have to figure out ways to revive it. ESPN was unhappy about the live streaming video that was available.

I'm not sure how to link things, but it's on the Chicago Tribune Web site, which takes registration:

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/international/cs-0504010207apr01,\
1,1429120.column?coll=cs-international-print

Thanks for posting this..

I am registered with the Chicago Trib web site, but got an "error - page not found" message when I tried to pull up the article.

I find the comment about ESPN's frustration with live streaming video very interesting, and I'm wondering if the article made mention of WHICH live streaming video they were upset about. The only one I got was through www.russiantvonline.com which was a subscription service ($9 for the month of World's, then cancelled it). I think some people were able to get some live coverage through a Chinese broadcaster. No fee for that one if I understand correctly.

If ESPN is indeed frustrated, why don't they take a lesson and offer their own live video stream for a fee? GEEZ that would be GREAT!!! Poor Peggy (or whoever) would have to commentate through ALL the skaters, but maybe we'd get to see them!! ESPN could save money on the fluff pieces to help pay for more commentary. I would sign up for an "event live feed" over the net, and pay for it, in a heartbeat.

DG

Here's another link (try this one):

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune....column?coll=cs-columnists&ctrack=1&cset=true

Well, at least they are going to make efforts to try to revive skating. ESPN could just as easily opt out of their contract (they even considered it) and there'd be no skating televised in the U.S.

Skating Ratings Shock Espn

Okay, we were NOT satisfied with ESPN's skating coverage. But guess what, ESPN isn't satisfied with its' ratings! Soooo, what will happen next????

SKATING RATINGS SHOCK ESPN


HEARD THIS ONE?
Comments?

Didn't see this before I posted my thread. But WOW. If the ratings are that bad, maybe I should teach my cat how to vote on the Nielson ratings site. And please don't blame ME. I DID vote that I was watching figure skating on the Nielson poll, for all three nights. Guess there aren't alot of fs fans who showed those choices.

(and while it is too late for those ratings, you too can vote for tv shows nightly by signing up for greenfieldonline.com panel)

Skating was opposite the NCAA tournament. I doubt other programs opposite did very well either. ESPN dedicatied hours to coverage of the tournament and skating was just an afterthought. They tell their audience to go watch something else basically. ESPN's core audience is men. They just think that women will flock to ESPN to watch skating when their husbands and boyfriends are watching basketball or football. Unless they know that skating is on ESPN they are going to watch other shows as ESPN isn't something they automatically channel surf. How do you promote a program where the audience you're seeking doesn't watch your station? Got to get the news out there that skating is on ESPN. Now the olympics has always been the best promoter there is. Get people interested then they may seek out where figure skating is on TV.

Wow, it was interesting to hear why button was not commentating at worlds!! I assumed he had bowed out, but to hear that the ISU wasnt comfortable with him was surprising. I think another reason why ratings may be low is that the COP has completely changed the way the game is played. The romance of the 6.0 system was that 1-4 places controlled their own destiny with the LP. I bet that the casual fan is turned of by the large and meaningless numbers awarded at the end of the program. I also think that programs geared towards COP are less interesting, so much emphasis is put on uping the degree of difficulty in spins and footword with complicated edging that aesthetics are often ignored. I think that skaters like Jeff Buttle have done a good job creating programs that are entertaining and make the most of the COP. Also, Cable is cable! Of course ratings are going to be lower, next year I'm sure they will spike because of the pre olympic season... but it wouldnt kill espn to do some promotion so that people know that they will be handling skating from now on. If it wasnt for the board, I wouldnt have gotten the memo and I would have thought that skating had disapeared.

I think the only way to know whether skating is truly dead in the U.S. is to wait and see how many viewers the Figure Skating event at the '06 Olympics draws. If those ratings are low or poor, then we'll know for sure. But for some reason I think these factors might have contributed to the low ratings:

1) The fact that it's on CABLE. Fewer people have access to cable, so you restrict your audience there.

2) The grainy broadcast video quality. You could get comparable quality streamed on the internet. On TV you want a bright, clear picture.

3) The commentators (?)

4) Frequent commercial breaks- offers people plenty of time to switch the channel and find another program

5) Too much fluff/not enough skaters broadcast. The Post-Competition Access Show was a great concept; I think all fluff/backstage footage could be relegated to that and show only skating during the broadcast...

6) As they pointed out, ESPN has to compete not only with other TV networks, but the alternatives. The fact that many skating fans in the U.S. aren't watching the broadcast but are looking for alternatives says it all. They need to compete with those and offer something better, while not forgetting about their other sports/commitments.

I think the audience is there; it's just the broadcast that sucked. While skating here is certainly going down the tubes, it might be a bit premature to declare it dead at this point. JMO, of course.

LBC said:

Skating was opposite the NCAA tournament. I doubt other programs opposite did very well either. ESPN dedicatied hours to coverage of the tournament and skating was just an afterthought. They tell their audience to go watch something else basically. ESPN's core audience is men. They just think that women will flock to ESPN to watch skating when their husbands and boyfriends are watching basketball or football. Unless they know that skating is on ESPN they are going to watch other shows as ESPN isn't something they automatically channel surf. How do you promote a program where the audience you're seeking doesn't watch your station? Got to get the news out there that skating is on ESPN. Now the olympics has always been the best promoter there is. Get people interested then they may seek out where figure skating is on TV.

Click to expand...

I forgot about that. I didn't think of the target audience. Great point about the target audience not typically watching ESPN. That could be a problem. But then again, they have connections with the ABC network, which has a general audience. I always see ads for ABC on ESPN and vice versa. I'm sure something could have been worked out there.

I also forgot to mention that, once again, it wasn't advertised a whole lot. If you don't know a show is on, how in the WORLD can you set time aside to watch it?

Doggygirl said:

Poor Peggy (or whoever) would have to commentate through ALL the skaters, but maybe we'd get to see them!!

Click to expand...

Or maybe not, and we could just watch the skaters and listen to the music.

Move to another thread.

ESPN was the only bidder for ongoing U.S. rights, leaving the ISU to eat humble pie_and only a couple of slices. The rest of the ISU's international TV rights sales add up to less than $5 million.

The international federation figured it would save some face when ESPN submitted Button's name in original discussions about broadcasters it intended to use for the 2005 worlds. The ISU response was to eliminate Button, a frequent antagonist who publicly supported the late World Skating Federation, which made a quixotic attempt to gain control of the sport.

Click to expand...

Wow, even with the reduced contract money that ESPN paid to the ISU. It still worth more than the rest of world combined. No wonder someone cry out laud in another board wants the American pies, when their skaters did not get invited to the Marshalls.

Bummer...

I signed up and paid my $9.00 for the Russianvideo thing and it didn't work! Sooooo, I was stuck with ESPN after all.....

Time for a new deal all the way around. Keep the 3 cheesefests on ABC as the nucleus of the new Grand Slam of pro-am figure skating, and let Speedy and the ISU go under.

MM

Skating went down the tubes when CBS stopped covering worlds. CBS had the best figure skating coverage of the big 3 networks b/c it showcased all the top 6 skaters and it was unbiased coverage. They had fluff pieces on skaters from lots of countries and on their wrap up show, they would show up and comers from other countries. The commentary was unbiased as well. That was when Scott and Verne Lundquist worked together and Scott was quite impartial back then. It seemed that when he paired up with Sandra Bezic a few years later, her pro Canadian/NA bs rubbed off on him.

I never cared for ABC's coverage and quite frankly, I never got into the Dick/Peggy combo commentary. ABC's coverage has been getting steadily worse through the years. Last year they chacked Stephane Lambiel of all people and showed Jenny's 3 falls. The only thing ABC has good coverage of is Nationals. They never get it right for Worlds.

However ABC is so much better than NBC and ESPN with the figure skating coverage. ESPN's figure skating coverage was poorly thought out and as cheaply done as possible. As a figure skating fan, I can tell they put absolutely no care or committment to their figure skating coverage. Skating is a performance sport and no one wants to hear warning chimes and then have the screen shortened during a performance so that way the station can flash sports scores! Also the audio on the commentary was fairly poor as well. Their coverage of the GP and Worlds was a huge disappointment.

The station that had the best coverage of the GP events was FOX when they had it in the 97-98 season. What fantastic coverage! They actually showed all the skaters in all the events.

As for ESPN b!tching about streaming video, maybe they need to get online and see what the fans are doing. The fans are downloading programs as the event is occurring b/c they want the coverage as close to the event as possible, want to see all the skaters, and want an event that is covered professionally (by Europort, Chinese TV etc) and doesn't reek of being a cheap afterthought. I don't even tape skating events anymore b/c what I get online is so much better. I would prefer to see the event on a big TV but I'm not wasting tape on ESPN coverage!

I also want to add that NBC's biased coverage of the pairs event ruined figure skating. I am tired of hearing all the b!tching about the scoring system. I think most people who tune in just want to see skating and not hear all the controversy. There's enough turmoil in the world without getting folks all worked up about a figure skating result.

How about the other networks, Fox, NBC, and CBS. I don't really like watching skating on ESPN, they have that thing running at the bottom of the screen that messes up your video taping. It's just a thought.

The one catch-22 with showing sports on Network Television is that you are prone to break-ins from the news programs (or local stations) if something bad should happen. At least on ESPN you don't have that worry.

I think ESPN is fine...they should just live and learn, and provide better coverage next time.

Actually, one of the things that was interesting to me was this: Did you catch the credits at the end of the broadcast? It said "Produced by ABC Sports, in association with ESPN." So looks like ABC Sports still manages the broadcast but it is just shown in ESPN instead. So would ABC have shown the same thing if they still had the deal running...?

I think the advertising was a problem. I wonder how many casual fans who would tune into ABC's broadcast in the past even knew the Worlds were on that week and that they were on ESPN. I only saw one brief commercial on broadcast television for Worlds on ESPN. Much of their audience that would tune into skating don't regularly watch ESPN and wouldn't see commercials for it shown on ESPN.

I wonder if anyone has sent ESPN links to these kinds of threads. Is that a good idea or a bad idea?

Maybe they could get a clue if they read one or two of the posts.