Problem was more on the Disney side than on the ESPN side. Bob Iger is a sports guy, so him being there is actually better for ESPN. With the CFL being so insignificant to ESPN in the grand scheme of things, I doubt it matters who is in charge.
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Iger was CEO of Disney from 2005 to 2020. He accomplished much for the company.
Iger was there in 2012 as ESPN took another turn for the worse in reaction to the cable-cutting of 2010, which like most cable executives was blamed on merely the Great Recession when in reality the reasons were that the industry did not innovate and the product and service SUCKED.
Instead of proper business and sports focus, ESPN turned more and more political for starters.
Your view here that Iger will somehow be good for ESPN does not wash with recent history at all.
Iger is not going to improve the situation at ESPN. He's already screwed up via that loser they kept around for years as they ignored all the evidence of failure in their characteristic New England / Manhattan arrogance of the period 2007 to 2020, John Skipper, before.
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Fox Sports drew 42 million (!!) viewers for the NFC East matchup, which is the most viewers for any regular-season NFL game in history. Previously, 32 years ago, 41.47 million viewers watched the Giants lose to the 49ers during Week 13 of the 1990 season— when out-of-home viewing was not measured and streaming didn’t exist.
My brother-in-law is a fan of the New York Giants, and so I was over at his house watching with him as an Eagles fan as we were both cheering against the Cowboys to no avail.
I had no clue this many would have watched!
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It was expected because the US ratings were home bound holiday viewers. There was no serious competition from other networks.
It's another Thursday in Canada when it comes to US Thanksgiving Day
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World Cup Ratings USA
Here were the numbers for Netherlands - USA in the US. Saturday morning is also a more challenging window for ratings for live sports do please note.
- Viewership peaked at 16.3 million viewers between 11:30 and 11:45 a.m. ET as the Americans tried to come back from a daunting 2-0 deficit against the Dutch.
- The top five TV markets were Cincinnati, St. Louis, Washington D.C., Kansas City, and Austin.
- The match was Fox’s second-most streamed of the 2022 World Cup so far, notching an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 596,850 across the company’s streaming platforms.
The match, which peaked with 13.37 million viewers from 11:30-11:45 AM ET, delivered the second-largest single-network audience of the World Cup — trailing only USMNT-England on the day after Thanksgiving (15.38M with pre-match included). The other two USMNT matches averaged 12.01 million (vs. Iran) and 8.31 million (vs. Wales).
I am not sure of the reason of the disparity in reports of the numbers for the time window.
Also note the impressive numbers for Spanish-language broadcasts and streams.
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That's slightly disappointing with the lack of competition Saturday morning. Although, kickoff at 7AM on the west coast hurt numbers I'm sure. I was expecting 18-20 million viewers for this match.
Your expectations seem way too high for that time slot in my view.
The reason there is a lack of competition in that window in December on Saturday morning answers itself.
It's not a desirable window for live sports though of course Premier League holds its own depending on the matchup on any given Saturday morning.
As cited in the second article, only the prior knockout round match at a better time in early July in 2014 did slightly better.
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Forgot to mention that with SRX moving from CBS to ESPN for Thursday night racing, the CFL now has more competition to get games aired on linear tv that night.
With that CBS network slot now open, I might as well be the 1st to push for the league to abandon ESPN and then sign with CBS. Because they lost a live sporting event during the summer, CBS will now be desperate and willing to pay a fortune to the air CFL games. 
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A fortune? I don't think so though by the emoticon it appears you jest.
Otherwise for a far better deal with more money and far better promotion and exposure, one of a few advantages of CBS over awful ESPN is that games would be on Paramount+, which tops both ESPN+ and Peacock on subscribers as the other two major platforms with live sports not counting Amazon's lame NFL Thursday nights, and then occasionally depending on the time slot, especially in the summer including some Saturdays before NCAA football starts, can be simulcast on CBS proper like various other sports on the Paramount+ platform.
Paramount+ has almost double the subscribers as ESPN+:
Very few even with cable ever gave a rip about CBS Sports Network even before Paramount+ was rolled out in March 2021 as a rebrand and relaunch of CBS All Access.
CBS Sports Network is NOT where the CFL should desire to be stuck unless a simulcast with Paramount+ - being tucked behind a cable paywall for live sports and events is going back in time and archaic now.
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I don't see the fortune happening until the league hits 12 teams - QC, Halifax and Maybe one other - I don't think that 9 teams gets you to the critical mass threshold. MLS got a chunk of cash because they have 29 teams and a hell of a lot of inventory - 4 games a week and teams playing each other 4 times a season will get you some money but not big big money. Especially when half the season is going to be drowned out by the NCAA and NFL.
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Oh well, it's for another thread and I've already made some related comments, but
The jury is out on just how successful the MLS will be via Apple TV+.
Though there is fierce debate, the CFL has already moved up the start of the season earlier such that less than half of the games are left after the second weekend in September, with is the second half of the home-and-away games for Labour Day Weekend and far too soon for final NFL cuts to drift over and play in a few cases.
The CFL is not going back to a later start and already has built-in the possibility of starting even earlier, and in part some of that future decision will depend also on the fallout from the current spring football experiments in the US.
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We've all gone around and around on this one. It's not happening in Canada any time soon after more than a decade of being bantered around including in discussions on this forum.
As for the US, well that's a whole other thread and debate.
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Dude totally agree with you on expansion happening - when or where - I just throw out my estimate of the number of teams required for critical mass to be achieved. Whether those teams are in Canada, USA, Wakanda, Owned by Dr. Doom in Latveria, Gotham, Metropolis or Azmenistan. I really think that for the schedule and content volume you need a critical mass for everything to work a little better especially with an 18 game season.
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Cowboys vs Giants had NFL single game viewing record of 42 million
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I just think Paolo is secretly hoping you start a new thread entitled "Should the CFL Pivot From Chicago to Buffalo?"
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Well that would be a difficult one to pull off...but ok
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yeah sorry I forgot to add the " 
"
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Ha ha no, but hey if you are so inclined or anybody else, what's to stop you?
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Well the 2022 World Cup Final in Qatar was the second-most watched in history in the US behind only the 2014 final in Rio de Janeiro.
Ratings were way up from the 2018 final in Moscow between France and Croatia.
The epic World Cup final averaged nearly 26 million viewers in the U.S. The live game began at 10 a.m. (ET) and averaged 16.8 million viewers including streaming on Fox. Telemundo’s live coverage generated an average audience of approximately 9 million viewers including streaming. The World Cup final was the most streamed (English and Spanish language) soccer match to date in the U.S. (The 2022 ratings included out-of-home audiences including bars, offices and other venues which went unmeasured in previous World Cups.)
By comparison, the 2018 World Cup final averaged 17.8 million on Fox/Telemundo, the least watched since 2002. The 2014 finale from Brazil (Germany defeated Argentina) on ABC/Univision averaged a record high 27.3 million viewers. The 2010 World Cup final (Spain defeated Netherlands) from South Africa aired on ABC/Univision and averaged 24.7 million viewers. The 2006 final, from Germany (Italy defeated France), had a combined 18.9 million on ABC/Univision.
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