Real Madrid scores for GolTV

It was a big night, at least by GolTV standards.

Last Friday's fun kick-around between Real Madrid and Toronto FC drew 90,000 viewers, which  would be considered a miserable failure for most Canadian channels. But since the game was on a tiny digital channel named GolTV, this was a blockbuster.

The game produced the channel's largest ratings, thanks mainly to a distribution deal that put it on free preview and even made the game available to those with old-fashioned analog channels. 

Does it prove that soccer is a big-time sport here? Not really, though that's not really in dispute since World Cup ratings have already done that.

Does it put GolTV on the map? Yes, at least for now. But now that it has soccer fans' attention, the new MLSE property will have to follow up with some solid programming. Some World Cup games and maybe even an EPL match or two wouldn't hurt.

By the way, if you not that ratings for Friday's Argos-Alouettes game look a little low, consider this: Almost 300,000 watched the game on French-language RDS. I'm told many of those are anglophones who've got themselves in the habit of watching football en francais.

Here are the most-watched weekend sports events in English Canada, according to BBM Nielsen Media Research overnight ratings:

1. Football, Roughriders at Lions, Friday, TSN: 425,000

2. Football, Blue Bombers at Stampeders, Saturday, TSN: 367,000

3. Football, Eskimos at Tiger-Cats, Saturday, TSN: 354,000

4. Football, Argos at Alouettes, Friday, TSN: 281,000

5. Baseball, Orioles at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 258,000

6. Baseball, Orioles at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 234,000

7. Baseball, Orioles at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 223,000*

8. Auto racing, NASCAR Sprint Cup (rainout), Sunday, TSN: 144,000

9. Football, Bills vs. Titans, Sunday, TSN: 135,000**

10. Baseball, Red Sox at Yankees, Saturday, Sportsnet: 126,000

* Pacific and Ontario channels only

** NBC audience not calculated

Comments

[chris]

One wonders how many viewers the TFC-Real Madrid friendly would have drawn had the game been on CBC, as VWater brought up in the previous blog.

[KRB]

So, what happened to MLSE wanting to merge their (two at the time, now three) obscure digital channels into one general sports channel that they hoped would compete with TSN and Sportsnet for subscriber and advertising dollars? You (and others, I believe) wrote about this about a year and a half ago,

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Hockey/article/418139

and I think a few months later the CRTC announced they were going to allow open competition between sports specialty channels.

BLOGGER'S REPLY: I'm not sure MLSE ever planned to roll all three (two at the time) into one. What they were asking for was a loosening of regional restrictions (Leafs TV) and more leeway in programming. However, that doesn't mean they won't consider an MLSE channel some day. As is the case everywhere, the economic downturn has slowed down all plans. Even CBC is reconsidering its digital sports channel in light of the CRTC moves.
Chris Zelkovich

[LionsFan]

When CTV releases their Sunday NFL TV ratings, they always include the ratings for the simulcast U.S. channel as their own. Global did the same thing. Are you sure that TSN's NFL ratings aren't including the U.S. station whose signal has been overridden on cable?

BLOGGER'S REPLY: No. Because TSN doesn't have automatic simulcast rights, it usually cannot override the American signal. However, when you see CTV audience numbers for NFL, that includes everybody who watches on CTV and the U.S. channel. That's a good indication of interest.
Chris Zelkovich

[Mike]

The US signal doesn't get overridden by a cable channel, only by another network channel.

[JoeKnowsIt]

CFL wins again. Argos Als do almost 600,000 when you add in RDS viewers. When you look at the numbers, the CFL should have gotten double from TSN for their TV rights.