Well from the department of this is not a surprise, we have a new Saturday date, early afternoon time slots, no Southern Ontario team and TSN only coverage which is granted not available to all and the result should not be a surprise.
The East game is down 38% and the West with a much better match up is only down about 15%.
I guess the same type of results will take place this weekend, but possibly the RDS figures will add a higher figure.
Down the road, the stupid decision by TSN to broadcast without the bigger CTV network, may cost them dearly.
I read the article. I don't think the drop in ratings has anything to do with the fact that the games were on TSN or on a Saturday. It's the fact that there was no Southern Ontario team in the playoffs. The GTA is HUGE, and if the Argos or Cats aren't in the playoffs, interest drops off. The fact is, if you're a real CFL fan, you'll pony up and get TSN. Saturday is clearly the better day for CFL playoffs because can then still watch the NFL games on Sunday.
I hate to sound negative, but I've always hated the argument "if you're a real fan". It is just a dumb way to do business. Let's make it harder for our customers to get access to the product, if they're real fans they will still find away to get it. This is why I hated the TSN deal in the first place because of this very thing. Now granted, they surprised me and had better ratings through the regular season and quite simply had superior coverage. However, come playoffs to a lesser degree, but mainly come Grey Cup time....we lose the CASUAL viewer (how else do we get 3-5million viewers). It's the casual viewer that we want to watch because if the product is good enough they will stick around and watch more and become fans. By taking it off broadcast television you simply eliminate the casual viewer (or at the very least a big chunk of them) and as well the product seems to be worth less to sponsors and to television.
Major TV ratings drops I believe would do more to affect sponsorships nationwide than the NFL coming to Toronto.
I don't know if I'd say part of the reason the ratings went down is because TSN is the only broadcaster... They were the only broadcaster during the regular season, and the ratings went up. So that point, to me at least, doesn't make much sense.
I'd attribute the loss to the change from Sunday to Saturday and to there being no team from Ontario, which makes sense considering the East dropped the most (38%).
Gee. CFL playoff ratings crash by going to early Saturday afternoon from the usual Sunday prime time.
Who'd a guesses? Wait, I did!
The casual fan has better things to do on their Saturdays then stay home to watch football.
I know I didn't watch much of either game.
It'll be the same for next week.
cFL has to explain this one.
Mark Cohon is screwing up bigtime here.
His moving the playoffs to Saturdays is backfiring badly.
I know the same old same olds will start the name calling again.
But then again, I sais this move was a mistake, and I was 100% correct.
This league just can't stop shooting itself in the foot, and giving ammunition
to the usual CFL bashers in the media.
Some people just can't handle the truth.
hey guess what?
just because Toronto doesn’t watch the game, doesn’t mean it fails Berezin.
they didn’t check to see how many people were watching out in Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba and B.C.!
you gotta remember, there are 9 million people give or take out west! and well, you gotta expect the City of Toronto to lose interest when there aren’t any Ontario based teams in the playoffs…
you might think it’s a failure,
but out west, it was a success my friend!
I don't know if I'd say part of the reason the ratings went down is because TSN is the only broadcaster... They were the only broadcaster during the regular season, and the ratings went up. So that point, to me at least, doesn't make much sense.I guess we'll see after the Grey Cup game whether or not it's really about the Saturday/Sunday thing, since it will be played on Sunday. I know the sunday/saturday thing IS a factor and ratings were better during the regular season, but they are supposed to go up for the playoffs....and that's when we get more casual viewer audiences. I believe what happened on Saturday was a combination of those two factors. I think there will still be a big drop in the ratings for Grey Cup this year as compared to previous years.
Here’s an interesting article on how TSN asked for the change to saturday and believed that their ratings would go up as a result. In fact Phil King said about the playoffs and I quote “Anything less than a million (people) will be disappointing,” . I’d say they must be atleast a little disappointed.
[url=http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Huntington/2008/10/09/7029496-sun.html]http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Columnists/Hu ... 6-sun.html[/url]As far as the sky falling jm…we’ll see.
How is 1 pm on Saturday considered early, but 1 pm on Sunday is prime time…? Honestly, some times I think you have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about; you just like to complain about how the CFL did this wrong and TSN did that wrong, blah, blah, blah… :roll:
Maybe I was wrong about starting times, but the bottom line is the bottom line is the bottom line.
And the bottom line is TV ratings were down bigtime.
Again I reiterate.
Was this change done in the best interests of the CFL and its fans?
Why would Mark Cohon fool around with success?
How can you hapharzardly decide to change the dates of your most important games without doing any reserarch on its effects on TV ratigns and fan interest?
You just don't get it chief.
I have my own business. You don't act if you don't know the results.
Especially when what you want to change has been a huge success.
CFL seems to work ass backwards
you never bothered to comment on my fact that the western provinces had high TV ratings!
I think having Saturday games was a mistake a lot of people use that day for doing Banking, Shopping etc. and nowadays a lot more people have to work on these days( I for one ) I'm a little chocked that I will miss the early game . For me Sunday traditionally is the Day for Football playoffs . If your a Fan of CFL you will watch the games over any NFL game anytime.
Berezin’s mentality is- if its not happening in Toronto, then who cares… and he calls the Toronto media biased… same old routine from him… its getting quite old and nauseating… :roll:
Not long ago, the east semi was on Saturday and the west semi was Sunday. The following week, the west final was Saturday and the East final was Sunday.
So in reality, traditionally, Playoffs have been on Saturday
How about truly going to prime time in the late evening and night. If this was the case, I would stay with Saturday.
The afternoon time slot games have got to go, whether Saturday or Sunday.
Maybe now more people see Saturday as hockey and don't twig football, I don't know. Also, Sunday even if NFL more people are at home regardless therefore better ratings. Who knows. But for sure, no Toronto hurts, or Hamilton.
If we did go prime time on Saturday, then we would be competing with HNIC, and we’d also have to compete with NCAA football.
Once a year for two weekends there is no problem to go up against the boring HNIC.
Good god, what the hell do you guys want anyway? Friday nights? Wednesday mornings? Going up against HNIC would be suicidal for the league. There is just no satisfying some people… :roll: :roll: