Ratings through the roof -- with an explanation

Somebody asked me the other day if I was well, or possibly working part-time. Checking first to see if it wasn't one of the boss's operatives, I inquired as to why he would ask such a question. ``You're only blogging once a week," he replied.

It's true, but there's an explanation. I cover the Argos (insert sympathy here) 6 months of the year and don't have the time to either blog or do the research that goes into it. Heck, with this team I barely have time to prune the roses.

So there's the explanation. Speaking of explanations (quite the segue, eh?), one is needed for last weekend's TV ratings. At first glance, it looks like a whole bunch more people started watching sports on TV.

Take TSN's Labour Day football doubleheader. The prime-time Calgary-Edmonton game drew an average of 979,000 viewers while the afternoon Argos-Ticats game attracted 844,000. That's 43 per cent more viewers than TSN drew last year for much more competitive games. (Those 2008 numbers were 20 per cent than the year before on CBC, by the way.)

The explanation? BBM Canada has started using people meters, which it claims gives a much more accurate picture of who's watching what. It handed out 9,000 pager-like devices to carefully selected people (not me) and they record what you're watching -- even if you're watching in a bar or at a neighbour's home.

I'm not sure how the science works, or whether it's even accurate, but BBM and the networks like it and believe in it. One of the interesting things that come out in the testing was that sports ratings increased more than other types of TV shows. That makes sense since people tend not to flock to bars to watch So You Think You Can Dance.

If they do, it's probably not a bar we'd want to go to.

So, here are the overnight ratings for English-language sports programming supplied by BBM Canada. Keep in mind that while the numbers are higher, they are relatively in the same order they usually are, meaning the CFL is at the top of the summer ratings.

1. Football, Blue Bombers at Roughriders, Sunday, TSN: 982,000

2. Football, Eskimos at Stampeders, Monday, TSN: 979,000

3. Football, Argonauts at Tiger-Cats, Monday, TSN: 844,000

4. Football, Alouettes at Lions, Friday, TSN: 750,000

5. Baseball, Yankees at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 622,000

6. Auto racing, NASCAR Labor Day Classic, Sunday, TSN: 608,000

7. Baseball, Yankees at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 586,000

8. Baseball, Yankees at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 325,000

9. Auto racing, NASCAR Nationwide V12, Saturday, TSN: 321,000

10. Tennis, U.S. Open, Monday, TSN: 274,000*

11. Tennis, U.S. Open, Sunday, TSN: 239,000

12. Baseball, Padres at Dodgers, Sunday, Sportsnet: 220,000

13. Baseball, Red Sox at White Sox, Saturday, Sportsnet: 207,000*

14. Golf, Canadian Women's Open, Sunday, CBC: 168,000

* Viewers for U.S. channels not calculated

Comments

[Mike]

Interesting stuff, Chris. I have just a few questions to clear up.

1. Are these devices like the people meters used by Arbitron in the States for radio ratings? Those devices pick up audio codes in the radio feed that human ears can't. Then it decipher the code to determine what station is on and records how long it heard that code.

2. If these devices do work like the radio ones, say you're at a bar watching the game but the TV is on mute or if a game is on but you have no interest in it so you don't watch while you drink or if 2 tv's have 2 seperate games? Would there be some sort of manual override so the user can change the info to better reflect their behaviour or is that just one of the limitations and BBM has to live with imperfect data?

Another interesting note is that if these viewer numbers are truly more accurate, all the companies that advertise on sports properties have been getting a big discount in what they are paying for the reach they get. If they are paying a rate that is shown for a game that before would be watched by 300,000, but in reality is really watched by 450,000-500,000 or more, that's a ton of more eyeballs that you were basically getting for free. And I would bet those extra people would be skewed in the highly desirable 18-35 or 18-49 demos, since based on my experience I've found younger people are more likely to watch games in groups at a house or bar than seniors.

Bottom line, the new system should mean more ad revenue for all the sports channels. No wonder they like it! And similarly, all the sports teams and leagues should be able to demand more money for the Canadian TV rights whenever their current contract expires.

[JoeKnowsIt]

Once again Chris you don't give the RDS numbers. If you did, the Als-Lions game might have topped one million viewers. Which is amazing in itself for a late starting game.

[Chris F.]

I feel sorry for you having to work the Argo beat. It's the hell for beat reporters in this city IMO.

Anyways as for the new devices if they're truly accurate then I could see the sports networks asking for bigger ad money now. It'll be interesting to see how that comes about in the next few months/year or so.

[JoeKnowsIt]

Gee Chris. Tough to cover a team that gets almost a million viewers on TV and close to 30,000 a game for a last place team.

[willy]

what about the tfc ratings?

[Tabber]

Joe: So what were the numbers? Given your name, you know, so share with us. Or are you missing an "s" and an "h" in your name? By the way, those who claim to know it all really tick off those of us who do, until they inevitably demonstrate the falsity of their claim! Then they are shown to be the laughing stocks that they actually are.

[Jack C]

Only English-speaking Canada is relevant for advertising revenue purposes (which is what the above numbers are generated for), hence this is why RDS viewership doesn't appear on BBM's numbers.

[Mike]

Actually Jack, BBM does calculate French TV audience numbers (here's the latest week http://www.bbm.ca/en/que08242009.pdf). I think the reason Chris doesn't add in all the sports events on RDS is because this is an English paper.

[HarvesterOfEars]

How gullible does someone have to be to believe the attendance announced at Argo home games? They always claim it's about 30,000 no matter how few people are there. The upper deck (the 500 level) is closed, meaning a crowd of 30,000 requires almost every seat in the rest of the stadium to be occupied, which is very obviously not happening. I was one of 12 people sitting my 200 level section the last time I bought a ticket. Try counting the number of people and empty seats in some sections, and you'll see most sections are less than 30% full, and the size of the crowd is under 10,000.

[JoeKnowsIt]

Harvest. I know it. You don't. Teams announce tickets sold. Not actual butts in the seat. Thats why the last Jays game was announced as 11,000, when there wasn't more then 4,000 in actual attendance.
And Tabber. RDS does big numbers for the Als. Maybe you should educate yourself more before trying to act like you know more then me.

[Mike]

"I know it. You don't."

Ha, that's a laugh. You're about as ignorant as it gets when it comes to sports, Joe. In fact, I don't think I've seen one post from you that didn't contain one falsehood.

4,000 in the stands? you know that do you? What did you go around the stadium and count every single person who was there? I saw the game on tv and while it was pretty empty, there were close to 4,000 on the 100 level alone.

[JoeKnowsIt]

Ah Mike. You seem to know me so well.
But that 4,000 number was posted by someone on another website who was at the game. And if you looked at the panorama of the crowd on Tv, there was barely anybody even behind home plate.

And a well known baseball writer yesterday reported that the Jays will lose upwards of 30 million this year. Pretty close to what I said eh? And you were saying they made a profit?

Like I said. They're Phoenix Coyotes north. But there'll be no Jim Balsille around to save them.

[Mike]

Oh so you got that number by an anonymous person on some website. Well if "the internets" says so it must be true I guess. Funny how my eyes play tricks on me.

I don't recall ever discussing how much the Jays make or lose and certainly dont recall you saying they would lose $30M. That seems high, especially with the trades they've made to save salary.

[HarvesterOfEars]

I see. There really are 28,000 people who buy tickets to every Argo home game, but 20,000 of them always get lost on their way to the stadium. I believe that. Just like I believe the Argo owners really had the money to build that stadium at York University, and it wasn't just a phoney proposal to get a better deal at Rogers Centre.