Skating commercials and TV ratings

[eliza88]

I remember at the end of last season that ESPN was complaining about really low Figure Skating ratings...have they done anything this year to improve that? I was watching NFL Primetime last night and they advertised the skating for Monday night...I thought, this isn't the right demographics for skating! So far I have yet to see a skating commercial on anything but ESPN! The pure figure skater follower generally knows when skating will be aired, but what about the casual fan? Are there commercials also on ABC for skating events to be aired on ESPN?

Does anyone know this years figure skating ratings? I don't want ESPN to drop coverage sue to low ratings!! I do like that they are showing us the SP's this year!

eliza88

 

[tripleflutz]

I don't know what the ratings are this year, but I think that a big reason for the low ratings at last seasons Worlds in Moscow was the very poor video quality of the broadcast. The video of the Interviews and features that were probably edited and compiled here in the USA was great, while the video of the skating piped in strait from Moscow was awful, not sharp, almost blurry, with indistinct color. I would rate it as one of the worst quality broadcasts that I've ever seen. Something that bad can't hold the interest of the casual fan who probably just surfed to another channel before they got eyestrain. Only us diehard fans, who had to watch stayed. ESPN/ESPN2 needs to address some technical issues and consistantly provide high quality images if they expect to have high ratings.

 

[Eeyora]

It's a real shame there are not spots on ABC. I recall someone reporting they saw a Worlds commercial during Daytime and ESPN advertised Worlds on TNT and TBS but they are not venues with High ratings. Maybe they could run a spot during Desperate Housewives.

 

[screech]

Last season CTV advertised Canadians constantly, like every 10 minutes there was an ad for it. CBC advertised skating pretty regularly too when Worlds was on. And the ratings in Canada were pretty good (of course, the mens event at Worlds was the highest rated, because of all the news of a Canadian being in the medal hunt). But it would be during things like the news they would advertise skating. During TV shows... it didn't really matter the program, and it seemed to work pretty well.

 

[Mathman]

This is off-topic, but I saw Sasha's TV ad for citizen's watches on prime time network TV the other day.