SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

The USFL has hit the field. Discuss it here!
4th&long
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SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

Post by 4th&long »

MAJOR news in this article - GREAT reporting...

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/S ... =usfl&sc=0

Highlights:

-1 On broadcast, USFL averaged just over 1 million (927,000 if you take out the outlier debut simulcast)

-2 On cable, USFL averaged 305,000 viewers on FS1/USA, better than what the 2021 MLS season did on ESPN/ESPN2. The USFL's 3x spread between broadcast and cable is bigger than usual for sports that appear on both, and worth thinking more about.

-3 To Fox Sports Exec VP Mike Mulvihill, the numbers are proof that spring football belongs in the panoply of profitable spring/summer sports properties. “All we wanted to do is demonstrate that spring football can do viewership at the levels of Premier League, NHL regular season, Formula One or MLS. ... We want to show we belong in that category, and I think that happened.”

-4 “The USFL worked for us on a bunch of fronts,” said NBC Sports exec Jon Miller. “Is it a profitable property? All things put together, I would say yes, it was a profitable property for us.”
Miller said NBC was happy with the product, the play quality, the joint production with Fox and the viewership. “It did what we hoped it would do, and we’re excited to begin planning, once this season is over, to talk about 2023.”

-5 "The attendance issue was something we knew was likely to happen because of the one location. ... We’re working with (Fox) to address that for next year,” Miller said.
---

With this said it looks like USFL is 100% back in 2023. And will be working on improvements during the offseason for next year. BTW some numbers look very slightly off - could be how they calculated the opening night (likely) or slightly diff numbers from ShowBuzz (or miscalc). Its neither here nor there.

I said it back in Dec with my initial USFL prediction, spring-summer is a tougher ratings time than winter-spring. Weather is a big player. As is play in cities and city mkt size. USFL was not going to beat XFL 2.0, but they did well, esp on Broadcast.
herns
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Re: SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

Post by herns »

4th&long wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:10 am MAJOR news in this article - GREAT reporting...

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/S ... =usfl&sc=0

Highlights:

-1 On broadcast, USFL averaged just over 1 million (927,000 if you take out the outlier debut simulcast)

-2 On cable, USFL averaged 305,000 viewers on FS1/USA, better than what the 2021 MLS season did on ESPN/ESPN2. The USFL's 3x spread between broadcast and cable is bigger than usual for sports that appear on both, and worth thinking more about.

-3 To Fox Sports Exec VP Mike Mulvihill, the numbers are proof that spring football belongs in the panoply of profitable spring/summer sports properties. “All we wanted to do is demonstrate that spring football can do viewership at the levels of Premier League, NHL regular season, Formula One or MLS. ... We want to show we belong in that category, and I think that happened.”

-4 “The USFL worked for us on a bunch of fronts,” said NBC Sports exec Jon Miller. “Is it a profitable property? All things put together, I would say yes, it was a profitable property for us.”
Miller said NBC was happy with the product, the play quality, the joint production with Fox and the viewership. “It did what we hoped it would do, and we’re excited to begin planning, once this season is over, to talk about 2023.”

-5 "The attendance issue was something we knew was likely to happen because of the one location. ... We’re working with (Fox) to address that for next year,” Miller said.
---

With this said it looks like USFL is 100% back in 2023. And will be working on improvements during the offseason for next year. BTW some numbers look very slightly off - could be how they calculated the opening night (likely) or slightly diff numbers from ShowBuzz (or miscalc). Its neither here nor there.

I said it back in Dec with my initial USFL prediction, spring-summer is a tougher ratings time than winter-spring. Weather is a big player. As is play in cities and city mkt size. USFL was not going to beat XFL 2.0, but they did well, esp on Broadcast.
I’m glad to see it was profitable for nbc and fox views it as a success but what I’m most glad about is nbc is pushing to get attendance better because that’s something that has to improve
4th&long
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Re: SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

Post by 4th&long »

herns wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2022 6:38 am
4th&long wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:10 am MAJOR news in this article - GREAT reporting...

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/S ... =usfl&sc=0

Highlights:

-1 On broadcast, USFL averaged just over 1 million (927,000 if you take out the outlier debut simulcast)

-2 On cable, USFL averaged 305,000 viewers on FS1/USA, better than what the 2021 MLS season did on ESPN/ESPN2. The USFL's 3x spread between broadcast and cable is bigger than usual for sports that appear on both, and worth thinking more about.

-3 To Fox Sports Exec VP Mike Mulvihill, the numbers are proof that spring football belongs in the panoply of profitable spring/summer sports properties. “All we wanted to do is demonstrate that spring football can do viewership at the levels of Premier League, NHL regular season, Formula One or MLS. ... We want to show we belong in that category, and I think that happened.”

-4 “The USFL worked for us on a bunch of fronts,” said NBC Sports exec Jon Miller. “Is it a profitable property? All things put together, I would say yes, it was a profitable property for us.”
Miller said NBC was happy with the product, the play quality, the joint production with Fox and the viewership. “It did what we hoped it would do, and we’re excited to begin planning, once this season is over, to talk about 2023.”

-5 "The attendance issue was something we knew was likely to happen because of the one location. ... We’re working with (Fox) to address that for next year,” Miller said.
---

With this said it looks like USFL is 100% back in 2023. And will be working on improvements during the offseason for next year. BTW some numbers look very slightly off - could be how they calculated the opening night (likely) or slightly diff numbers from ShowBuzz (or miscalc). Its neither here nor there.

I said it back in Dec with my initial USFL prediction, spring-summer is a tougher ratings time than winter-spring. Weather is a big player. As is play in cities and city mkt size. USFL was not going to beat XFL 2.0, but they did well, esp on Broadcast.
I’m glad to see it was profitable for nbc and fox views it as a success but what I’m most glad about is nbc is pushing to get attendance better because that’s something that has to improve
The #1 thing is TV ratings - if the attendance helps improve that great. Low attendance a visual that we prefer not to see, but its a form over substance thing. Clearly NBC sees it as something that hurts TV viewing so lets see what happens in 2023. It sounds like the players have alot to unpack and consider in 2022/23 so let's see.
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Re: SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

Post by SamTheRam28 »

herns wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2022 6:38 am
4th&long wrote: Fri Jun 24, 2022 1:10 am MAJOR news in this article - GREAT reporting...

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/S ... =usfl&sc=0

Highlights:

-1 On broadcast, USFL averaged just over 1 million (927,000 if you take out the outlier debut simulcast)

-2 On cable, USFL averaged 305,000 viewers on FS1/USA, better than what the 2021 MLS season did on ESPN/ESPN2. The USFL's 3x spread between broadcast and cable is bigger than usual for sports that appear on both, and worth thinking more about.

-3 To Fox Sports Exec VP Mike Mulvihill, the numbers are proof that spring football belongs in the panoply of profitable spring/summer sports properties. “All we wanted to do is demonstrate that spring football can do viewership at the levels of Premier League, NHL regular season, Formula One or MLS. ... We want to show we belong in that category, and I think that happened.”

-4 “The USFL worked for us on a bunch of fronts,” said NBC Sports exec Jon Miller. “Is it a profitable property? All things put together, I would say yes, it was a profitable property for us.”
Miller said NBC was happy with the product, the play quality, the joint production with Fox and the viewership. “It did what we hoped it would do, and we’re excited to begin planning, once this season is over, to talk about 2023.”

-5 "The attendance issue was something we knew was likely to happen because of the one location. ... We’re working with (Fox) to address that for next year,” Miller said.
---

With this said it looks like USFL is 100% back in 2023. And will be working on improvements during the offseason for next year. BTW some numbers look very slightly off - could be how they calculated the opening night (likely) or slightly diff numbers from ShowBuzz (or miscalc). Its neither here nor there.

I said it back in Dec with my initial USFL prediction, spring-summer is a tougher ratings time than winter-spring. Weather is a big player. As is play in cities and city mkt size. USFL was not going to beat XFL 2.0, but they did well, esp on Broadcast.
I’m glad to see it was profitable for nbc and fox views it as a success but what I’m most glad about is nbc is pushing to get attendance better because that’s something that has to improve
100%. As much as we want to say it doesn't matter, it clearly does. When a clip from the USFL goes viral, half the comments are inevitably about the empty stands. Atmosphere without a doubt affects viewing a game on TV. BC absolutely destroyed Edmonton a couple weeks ago in the CFL, which would normally make for boring TV, but it was actually kind of fun to watch because over 30K people were in the stands going nuts.

It looks like we'll probably get 2 hubs but I really hope we get all 8 in their home cities. I understand the plan is to take it slow and keep costs down. But the empty stands will hurt the league.
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Re: SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

Post by Tank55 »

I love them dunking on the MLS TV ratings. Congratuloser. Do MLS press releases brag about outdrawing the USFL at the gate?
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4th&long
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Re: SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

Post by 4th&long »

Tank55 wrote: Sat Jun 25, 2022 6:39 pm I love them dunking on the MLS TV ratings. Congratuloser. Do MLS press releases brag about outdrawing the USFL at the gate?
They aren't 'dunking' on MLS they are comparing TV ratings to MLS that just got a $250mm (less prod costs) from Apple. Fox is looking at TV rating not attendance. Come on you know that. :)
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Re: SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

Post by Tank55 »

4th&long wrote: Sat Jun 25, 2022 6:53 pm They aren't 'dunking' on MLS they are comparing TV ratings to MLS that just got a $250mm (less prod costs) from Apple. Fox is looking at TV rating not attendance. Come on you know that. :)
And you know that they're basically inverses of one another, so comparing them along a single dimension is completely disingenuous. Unless you think Apple payed them $250M because of their national TV ratings.
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Re: SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

Post by laxtreme56 »

Remember, Apple is broadcasting every MLS game, which account to over 900. If you include friendlies, MLS Next, tournaments, etc. that number is easily over 1k. Usfl is a mere 43 games.
4th&long
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Re: SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

Post by 4th&long »

Tank55 wrote: Sun Jun 26, 2022 12:42 pm
4th&long wrote: Sat Jun 25, 2022 6:53 pm They aren't 'dunking' on MLS they are comparing TV ratings to MLS that just got a $250mm (less prod costs) from Apple. Fox is looking at TV rating not attendance. Come on you know that. :)
And you know that they're basically inverses of one another, so comparing them along a single dimension is completely disingenuous. Unless you think Apple payed them $250M because of their national TV ratings.
Apple is paying for Eyeballs. Yes. Its the only property available so they (over) paid for it. Apple could care less about attendance, they want subscribers and viewership.
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Re: SBJ: Fox, NBC pleased with USFL

Post by Tank55 »

Right, they want subscribers. And despite their national TV ratings, MLS is positioned to deliver. USFL can sleepwalk to respectable broadcast ratings, but they wouldn't be able to move the needle for a paid platform. (Just ask Peacock.)

Because they are different. And that's OK. They both have things to offer media companies.
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