Sports

MLB Network Ratings for Wednesday, September 3, 2014

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Just testing out some new software. No particular reason for this post other than that. I know that the average age of an MLB TV viewer is even older than I am (and I’m old!), but in the last month of the season, these numbers make me sad. Most of those telecasts would be considered a “scratch” by … Read more

‘Outside The Lines’ & ‘First Take’ Viewership for the Week of July 7-13, 2014

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No reason for this post other than recent ruminating on Twitter by Sports Illustrated’s Richard Deitsch and Paulsen of Sports Media Watch had me curious. Brief context of the ruminating: Deitsch isn’t thrilled OTL’s Sunday telecast will be moving to ESPN2 when NFL comes back. The gist of  Paulsen’s stance is that First Take symbolizes everything … Read more

Why the World Cup numbers differ in ESPN press releases from the reported Nielsen numbers

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tl;dr: press releases are for bragging rights, Nielsen ratings are for facilitating the buying and selling of advertising.

Last Monday (June 23), ESPN sent out a press release saying that  World Cup match between USA and Portugal the day before averaged 18.2 million viewers.

Then the Nielsen numbers came out showing the telecast averaged 13.8 million viewers, nearly a 4.5 million viewer discrepancy. At TV by the Numbers we heard cries that we were reporting the wrong numbers. We’re not, but why are the numbers different?

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Why does Comcast SportsNet Bay Area hate its best viewers?

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I love the San Francisco Giants. I just love baseball in general, but I’m a big Giants fan. I’m the kind of  fan who watches some/most/all of the TV coverage for pretty much all 162 games.  I’m the kind of fan who watches the pre-game and post-game coverage. It’s great pre/post coverage especially when the A-Team of Greg Poppa, Bill Laskey and Vida Blue is assembled. That trio has great chemistry.

I love Willie Mays as much as the next 50+ year old, but I loathe CSN Bay Area’s “Say Hey Tuesdays” when they do the pre/post game coverage for  Giants Tuesday night home games from a live shoot at 24 Willie Mays Plaza and encourage people to yell and scream behind the telecast. Yep, they even give fans signs to hold up (see picture above).

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