All Things Sports Media Thread!!

[elpablo21]

Last week, Sports Illustrated  reported  network Fox Sports 1 is ending Fox Sports Live  as we know it, after the would-be SportsCenter  competitor helmed by popular Canadian anchors Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole failed to live up to its lofty projections. Its viewership was never particularly commanding, but Fox Sports Live’s ratings as measured by Nielsen have fallen through the basement in the past several months, with the program rarely managing to score even a tenth of a ratings point without the help of a major lead-in like postseason baseball or first-run UFC programming.

But Fox Sports Live isn’t the only FS1 program in search of viewers. Ratings across the network’s program schedule rarely rise above the “scratch” level, which Nielsen defines as having enough viewers to be accurately recorded. Even worse, FS1 programming is regularly beaten in the ratings by programs on networks with far fewer potential viewers—and even other Fox Sports-operated channels.

Literally no one is watching or cares about Fox Sports. We had to resort to a stunt headline here to get you to read this post about how no one is watching or cares about the network. The stunt headline will likely prove accurate.

Availability isn’t the problem. Here’s a breakdown of sports networks by number of subscribers this month, as published by SportsTVRatings.com  (from which all ratings information in this post was acquired):
[table][tr][td]Network name[/td][td]Estimated # of Homes (000)[/td][td]Coverage %[/td][td]July 2015 Estimate[/td][td]Change vs July 2015[/td][/tr][tr][td]BEIN SPORT[/td][td]25,161[/td][td]21.6[/td][td]18,161[/td][td]38.5%[/td][/tr][tr][td]ESPN[/td][td]90,988[/td][td]78.2[/td][td]92,940[/td][td]-2.1%[/td][/tr][tr][td]ESPN2[/td][td]90,879[/td][td]78.1[/td][td]92,855[/td][td]-2.1%[/td][/tr][tr][td]ESPNU[/td][td]70,733[/td][td]60.8[/td][td]73,091[/td][td]-3.2%[/td][/tr][tr][td]FOX DEPORTES[/td][td]22,099[/td][td]19.0[/td][td]21,534[/td][td]2.6%[/td][/tr][tr][td]FS1[/td][td]84,166[/td][td]72.3[/td][td]84,309[/td][td]-0.2%[/td][/tr][tr][td]FS2[/td][td]50,801[/td][td]43.6[/td][td]46,659[/td][td]8.9%[/td][/tr][tr][td]GOLF CHANNEL[/td][td]76,477[/td][td]65.7[/td][td]78,299[/td][td]-2.3%[/td][/tr][tr][td]MLB NETWORK[/td][td]66,018[/td][td]56.7[/td][td]68,342[/td][td]-3.4%[/td][/tr][tr][td]NBA-TV[/td][td]53,384[/td][td]45.9[/td][td]55,785[/td][td]-4.3%[/td][/tr][tr][td]NBC SPORTS NETWORK[/td][td]83,022[/td][td]71.3[/td][td]83,874[/td][td]-1.0%[/td][/tr][tr][td]NFL NETWORK[/td][td]69,634[/td][td]59.8[/td][td]70,466[/td][td]-1.2%[/td][/tr][tr][td]UNIVISION DEPORTES[/td][td]47,093[/td][td]40.5[/td][td]44,221[/td][td]6.5%[/td][/tr][/table]
As you can see, Fox Sports 1 reaches more homes than any sports network not named ESPN or ESPN2, and is available on tens of millions more televisions than many of its competitors. That hasn’t stopped those competitors from regularly beating FS1 in the ratings.

Take Colin Cowherd, whose July departure from ESPN was hastened due to his thoughts on Dominican baseball players. While Fox Sports suits have talked up the show’s viewership in press releases, the facts (per ratings data) reveal that between 50,000 and 60,000 people are tuned in on any given day. About twice as many viewers are choosing Chris “Mad Dog” Russo’s show on MLB Network—despite that channel being available in 18 million fewer homes. Other programs that beat out Cowherd during our ratings sample period: Fisher’s ATV World; Saltwater Experience; and  Fishing with Roland Martin.  All those air on NBC Sports Network, perhaps FS1's most appropriate rival.

It’s even more grim for The Best Thing I Herd, a Cowherd “greatest hits” show. It rarely pulled even 20,000 viewers, and regularly lost out to programs like UFC reruns on Fox Sports 2 or La Ultima Palabra  on Fox Deportes.

Also grim? Preliminary ratings for Fox’s much-hyped Whitlock’s House Party by the Bay, a Super Bowl special live show featuring guests like Fox Sports personality Clay Travis. For the three days this week we have data, it’s averaged a paltry 32,000 viewers. (If that; again, Nielsen doesn’t validate viewership numbers this low.) Given Cowherd’s numbers, it’s clear that people are actively changing the channel once Jason Whitlock appears on their televisions—choosing UFC reruns on FS2, an Inside Stuff  rerun on NBA TV, or something called The Insurance Skills Challenge  instead.

FS1's only reliable ratings draw is PBC boxing—which, given its airtime purchase nature, is essentially an infomercial for Al Haymon—and the daily, live NASCAR Race Hub. UFC programming is also strong, though it doesn’t manage to beat out the likes of women’s volleyball, President’s Cup golf, or a Bucks-Kings game on NBATV during our ratings sample period. Fox Sports 1 is available in 84 million households; it should rarely if ever lose ratings hours to programs on Univision Deportes or (especially) Fox Deportes, but that’s exactly what happens.

There’s something toxic about Fox Sports 1, a ratings wasting disease that has run rampant throughout the network’s programming while its execs have hired some of sports media’s most loathsome figures. Those things can’t be related, can they? Earlier this week, Colin Cowherd went back to one of his favorite wells: bashing John Wall for no apparent reason. It’s not clear whether Cowherd even believes the things coming out of his own mouth, or is just saying them for attention. If it’s the latter, that’s particularly sad, because it’s very clearly not working.

Here’s a spreadsheet highlighting our ratings samples; we took Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from the weeks of Oct. 5, Dec. 7, and Feb. 1. Next to each Fox Sports program and its estimated number of viewers (in thousands) and rating (if it earned one) is a comparable program running that same hour on another network.

http://deadspin.com/this-photo-of-john-wall-will-probably-get-more-viewers-1757330648

 

[dwileykyot]

absolutely disgusted seeing gronk do that with that lady

Are you being serious?

My sarcasm meter is off

My biggest takeaway from that Laplace video was that Whitlock has his own show on fs1?

I'm totally oblivious with anything going on on that channel

 

[shogun]

fs1 is a mess programming wise. They keep cancelling stuff. fox sports live is their daily scores and highlights show. How the hell are they going to cancel that? I watch the beginning of race hub just to see how good Danielle Trotta looks everyday.

 

[paradise50]

Flores is going to MLB Network.

Great move imo....his personality will fit well over there.

 

[T0INE]

 

Last week, Sports Illustrated  reported  network Fox Sports 1 is ending Fox Sports Live  as we know it, after the would-be SportsCenter  competitor helmed by popular Canadian anchors Jay Onrait and Dan O’Toole failed to live up to its lofty projections. Its viewership was never particularly commanding, but Fox Sports Live’s ratings as measured by Nielsen have fallen through the basement in the past several months, with the program rarely managing to score even a tenth of a ratings point without the help of a major lead-in like postseason baseball or first-run UFC programming.

But Fox Sports Live isn’t the only FS1 program in search of viewers. Ratings across the network’s program schedule rarely rise above the “scratch” level, which Nielsen defines as having enough viewers to be accurately recorded. Even worse, FS1 programming is regularly beaten in the ratings by programs on networks with far fewer potential viewers—and even other Fox Sports-operated channels.

Literally no one is watching or cares about Fox Sports. We had to resort to a stunt headline here to get you to read this post about how no one is watching or cares about the network. The stunt headline will likely prove accurate.

Availability isn’t the problem. Here’s a breakdown of sports networks by number of subscribers this month, as published by SportsTVRatings.com  (from which all ratings information in this post was acquired):
[table][tr][td]Network name[/td][td]Estimated # of Homes (000)[/td][td]Coverage %[/td][td]July 2015 Estimate[/td][td]Change vs July 2015[/td][/tr][tr][td]BEIN SPORT[/td][td]25,161[/td][td]21.6[/td][td]18,161[/td][td]38.5%[/td][/tr][tr][td]ESPN[/td][td]90,988[/td][td]78.2[/td][td]92,940[/td][td]-2.1%[/td][/tr][tr][td]ESPN2[/td][td]90,879[/td][td]78.1[/td][td]92,855[/td][td]-2.1%[/td][/tr][tr][td]ESPNU[/td][td]70,733[/td][td]60.8[/td][td]73,091[/td][td]-3.2%[/td][/tr][tr][td]FOX DEPORTES[/td][td]22,099[/td][td]19.0[/td][td]21,534[/td][td]2.6%[/td][/tr][tr][td]FS1[/td][td]84,166[/td][td]72.3[/td][td]84,309[/td][td]-0.2%[/td][/tr][tr][td]FS2[/td][td]50,801[/td][td]43.6[/td][td]46,659[/td][td]8.9%[/td][/tr][tr][td]GOLF CHANNEL[/td][td]76,477[/td][td]65.7[/td][td]78,299[/td][td]-2.3%[/td][/tr][tr][td]MLB NETWORK[/td][td]66,018[/td][td]56.7[/td][td]68,342[/td][td]-3.4%[/td][/tr][tr][td]NBA-TV[/td][td]53,384[/td][td]45.9[/td][td]55,785[/td][td]-4.3%[/td][/tr][tr][td]NBC SPORTS NETWORK[/td][td]83,022[/td][td]71.3[/td][td]83,874[/td][td]-1.0%[/td][/tr][tr][td]NFL NETWORK[/td][td]69,634[/td][td]59.8[/td][td]70,466[/td][td]-1.2%[/td][/tr][tr][td]UNIVISION DEPORTES[/td][td]47,093[/td][td]40.5[/td][td]44,221[/td][td]6.5%[/td][/tr][/table]
As you can see, Fox Sports 1 reaches more homes than any sports network not named ESPN or ESPN2, and is available on tens of millions more televisions than many of its competitors. That hasn’t stopped those competitors from regularly beating FS1 in the ratings.

Take Colin Cowherd, whose July departure from ESPN was hastened due to his thoughts on Dominican baseball players. While Fox Sports suits have talked up the show’s viewership in press releases, the facts (per ratings data) reveal that between 50,000 and 60,000 people are tuned in on any given day. About twice as many viewers are choosing Chris “Mad Dog” Russo’s show on MLB Network—despite that channel being available in 18 million fewer homes. Other programs that beat out Cowherd during our ratings sample period: Fisher’s ATV World; Saltwater Experience; and  Fishing with Roland Martin.  All those air on NBC Sports Network, perhaps FS1's most appropriate rival.

It’s even more grim for The Best Thing I Herd, a Cowherd “greatest hits” show. It rarely pulled even 20,000 viewers, and regularly lost out to programs like UFC reruns on Fox Sports 2 or La Ultima Palabra  on Fox Deportes.

Also grim? Preliminary ratings for Fox’s much-hyped Whitlock’s House Party by the Bay, a Super Bowl special live show featuring guests like Fox Sports personality Clay Travis. For the three days this week we have data, it’s averaged a paltry 32,000 viewers. (If that; again, Nielsen doesn’t validate viewership numbers this low.) Given Cowherd’s numbers, it’s clear that people are actively changing the channel once Jason Whitlock appears on their televisions—choosing UFC reruns on FS2, an Inside Stuff  rerun on NBA TV, or something called The Insurance Skills Challenge  instead.

FS1's only reliable ratings draw is PBC boxing—which, given its airtime purchase nature, is essentially an infomercial for Al Haymon—and the daily, live NASCAR Race Hub. UFC programming is also strong, though it doesn’t manage to beat out the likes of women’s volleyball, President’s Cup golf, or a Bucks-Kings game on NBATV during our ratings sample period. Fox Sports 1 is available in 84 million households; it should rarely if ever lose ratings hours to programs on Univision Deportes or (especially) Fox Deportes, but that’s exactly what happens.

There’s something toxic about Fox Sports 1, a ratings wasting disease that has run rampant throughout the network’s programming while its execs have hired some of sports media’s most loathsome figures. Those things can’t be related, can they? Earlier this week, Colin Cowherd went back to one of his favorite wells: bashing John Wall for no apparent reason. It’s not clear whether Cowherd even believes the things coming out of his own mouth, or is just saying them for attention. If it’s the latter, that’s particularly sad, because it’s very clearly not working.

Here’s a spreadsheet highlighting our ratings samples; we took Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday from the weeks of Oct. 5, Dec. 7, and Feb. 1. Next to each Fox Sports program and its estimated number of viewers (in thousands) and rating (if it earned one) is a comparable program running that same hour on another network.

http://deadspin.com/this-photo-of-john-wall-will-probably-get-more-viewers-1757330648

Yikes.

 

[shogun]

Does charissa thompson still even work over there? I haven't seen her on the channel in months.

 

[rook]

fs1 is a mess programming wise. They keep cancelling stuff. fox sports live is their daily scores and highlights show. How the hell are they going to cancel that? I watch the beginning of race hub just to see how good Danielle Trotta looks everyday.

Yeah it's a mess man. Thought it would flourish

 

[paradise50]

Does charissa thompson still even work over there? I haven't seen her on the channel in months.

She was doing Fox NFL Sundays (main network) and she does that entertainment show

 

[herbshuttles15]

http://deadspin.com/espn-radio-host-walks-off-in-middle-of-show-after-argui-1757624566

 

[mister friendly]

I like their NBA Lockdown podcast

 

[elpablo21]

http://deadspin.com/espn-radio-host-walks-off-in-middle-of-show-after-argui-1757624566

wtf 

 

[rolaholic]

I mean...isn't he?

ESPN in house beef is always appreciated

 

[herbshuttles15]

Guiterrez is a kinda punk. He always looks so smug and kinda gay. I could see why somebody might get mad at him.

he is gay tho

 

[herbshuttles15]

View media item 1902622

 

[kingkoopa]

http://deadspin.com/espn-radio-host-walks-off-in-middle-of-show-after-argui-1757624566

ESPN definatly houses some egos.

And as far as Flores good.

He's an *** hole.

I remember him mocking Lamar Odoms depression problems and all his Mayweather *******.

 

[dman14]

rarely sees the younger anchors/reporters stay with that network for a long time.

aside from live sports and your occasional 30/30, espn programming is terrible. baseball tonight, nba (what is their nightly recap show called these days?) fell off. would rather watch mlb network, nfl network, or nbatv for the nightly stuff

 

[equality]

It's so ironic (and sad) that the worst providers of quality material also are the most powerful.

NBATV > ESPN in nearly every way

 

[pmatic]

It can't be a coincidence the marquee free agent NBA coaches have been guests on podcasts lately right? Thibs on BS, VDN on Woj/Lowe Post and now Brooks on Mannix's podcast.

 

[jpzx]

I can't believe Lowe had George Karl on the day-he-REALLY-got-fired, and Karl wanted to continue to talk about the ABA at the end and Lowe was like, 'Eh, we'll let you get ready for those feisty Brooklyn Nets tonight. George Karl, thank you for your time.' Then they go out there and put a 120-spot on SAC.

Brooks and VDN didn't help themselves imo.

 

[herbshuttles15]

Back in my day [emoji]128514[/emoji]

 

[100027]

I can't believe Lowe had George Karl on the day-he-REALLY-got-fired, and Karl wanted to continue to talk about the ABA at the end and Lowe was like, 'Eh, we'll let you get ready for those feisty Brooklyn Nets tonight. George Karl, thank you for your time.' Then they go out there and put a 120-spot on SAC.

Brooks and VDN didn't help themselves imo.

 sounds great

 

[Benny Hinn]

That Lebatard/E.Sanders interview

Dan has no chill

 

[jpzx]

JVG's turn

https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-vertical-podcast-with-woj/id1065985281?mt=2&i=362571547

 

[equality]

Hope JVG never gets a coaching job again so we get to hear him commentate more

 

[jpzx]

Watched NBA Tonight the last two nights before crashing, could've sworn Antonio Davis was hungover in one and basically condescended the co-host the whole time in night two