Thank Goodness It Isn’t The Brooklyn 500…
…because I’m pretty sure people would be leaping off the Brooklyn Bridge. The ratings for St. Pete have been reported as a .3, peaking at .4 towards the end of the race. Last year, the Homestead opener did a 1.0.
Yup, the ratings are down.
Can you really be surprised? The number-one flaw of Versus for those who readily receive it is that it is not a part of a typical round of flipping. If I’m bored and in front of the TV, I typically flip to a number of channels to see what’s on. ESPN and ESPN2 would be a part of that. Versus was not until recently.
Somehow, the folk at IndyCar.com have declared that somehow .3 equates to two million people.
Lookie here, folk. 0.3 peaking at 0.4 is actually better than I had anticipated. I’m sure the ratings would have been higher on ESPN, but the quality would have been extensively lower. The Versus deal put IndyCar in line as part of a growth network. There will be growing pains.
The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. Well, that and Versus being so disheartened that they ax their efforts to promote the series.
Jeff and Chris have their takes. Personally, I tend to agree with Defender the most on this.
There’s a comment over at Chris’ entry that I’d like to address with two rhetorical questions:
Posted by apm, April 8, 2009 1:35 PM
Not to mention Versus chased off the IRL’s presenting sponsor, sounds like this partnership is off to a great start. No one could have predicted…
How many IndyCar commercials did DirecTV do? How many IndyCar commercials did Versus do?
They stuck with ABC for five races in part because of the exposure problem. It’s a compromise. I mean, ideally we’d have the opener on the big network. That said, big fish, little pond or little fish, big pond, people?
April 8th, 2009 at 6:44 pm
When ESPN first came onto the air, its ratings were low as it had to build its brand and market. SpeedTV experienced the same when it was born, and many stated that SpeedTV would never survive.
Versus is relatively new to the air and must also build its brand and market. This takes time and a considerable monetary capital investment. Also, with more broadcast, cable, and satellite channels now, there is more competition for viewers in any given time slot.
All being supportive in a positive mindset will help grow the brand and market if we want this to succeed. We will all need exceptional patience.
April 8th, 2009 at 10:39 pm
agree with fred.
it was only a year ago that mergericon happened. both series were in trouble. when IRL took over, doom and gloom everywhere. jeez–in like, a month.
so they survived and made a good deal with VS, a REAL good deal considering they had no other option.
then VS ends up rockin’ the house with terrific programming, yet all are distraught because of ratings? what the heck did you think?
irl/vs/open wheel/100th/new engine program/will be awesome if you just give it a chance.
chill
April 8th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
The bizarre thing is that the first ever IRL IndyCar race on Dutch tv besides the 500, has been watched by 226.000 people. Sure, 220.000 of them didn’t had the slightest idea about the IRL IndyCar Series before Roberto Doornbos signed with Newman/Haas, but still.
April 9th, 2009 at 8:50 am
0.3 – 0.4 is about what you’d expect for a street race (not a huge customer base out there for this product, folks) on VS. So the league is probably OK with the rating since it likely met expectations. Expecting a 2.0 for this type of race right out of the chute on a station with a smaller viewer universe is not acknowledging reality. The league and VS should be thinking long term, slow-and-steady builds the audience, etc. But where does the league get the 2 million viewers assertion? Must be a really wide definition of “viewer,” as in someone who walks by a bar that has the race on inside or something. That’s the part that I think is right off the surface of the moon.
April 9th, 2009 at 4:31 pm
How to calculate the number of people watching a TV program can be found on the Nielson TV ratings program ratings definitions webpage at http://tvbythenumbers.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/media_advisory_2008_09_seasonratings_definitions_availability1.pdf and with additional clarifying information found on its FAQ webpage at http://tvbythenumbers.com/demystifying-the-s.
A rating of 0.3 means that 0.3% of the TV households in the USA were watching the program. Similarly, a rating of 1.0 means that 1.0% of the TV households in the USA were watching the programThe estimated number of TV households in the USA is 114,500,000 with 289,950,000 people of age 2 and older residing in those TV households.
0.3% = 0.003
0.003 X 114,500,000 = 343,500 TV households in USA watching the program
0.003 X 289,950,000 = 869,850 people age 2 and over in USA watching the program
Available are similar rating services for foreign countries.
October 21st, 2009 at 7:42 pm
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