TV NUMBERS: EAST UP - WEST DOWN

Somewhat of a surprise but largely due from RDS numbers and that is not a surprise, the East did better then last year while the West was slightly down.
In light of the combination fiasco of going to Saturday and AGAIN, and the league not to mandate in the last TV contract and which Tom Wright can be blamed for not showing the playoffs and GC on the larger CTV network, I think the GC English numbers will be down this year and below the 3M mark, although the RDS figure we suspect will be awesome and in excess of 1M. The overall combo may though be in excess of 4M.

http://www.thestar.com/Sports/Football/article/538618

To be honest, I don't see a big problem with those numbers. The English viewers in the East tuned out because there still wasn't a team from Ontario. You'll see better numbers next season if the Argos are back in.

As for the West, a bit of a drop, but I still think it's anything to be concerned about.

I suspect that these numbers are down for two reasons. One the game on Saturday didn't draw as many fans. Two the games were broadcast on TSN. 500,000 households is a significant number of fans to be down because of no Ontario team.

Sunday's game will be the measuring stick. They will be able to compare it directly to last years game. Where once again there wasn't a Toronto based team. If the numbers are down for this game, it will be a stronger link to say the game needs to be moved off TSN and onto CTV.

1,045,000 viewers should have put the west final in the top 30, but it didn't make it.

http://www.bbm.ca/en/top_programs.html http://www.bbm.ca/en/nat11102008.pdf

1045 (1000s) would put it at rank 25, but it's not there. Which tells me the audience was less than 907,000.

I can understand the east final not there, due to the TSN/RDS english / french split. But the west final has been there since they started the list in 2003.

Previous years TV, as per BBM (1000's).

WSF:
2005: 1059
2006: 1098
2007: 1016

WF:
2003: 1426
2004: 1664
2005: 1608
2006: 1403
2007: 1552
2008: 1045 (As per the article above, not BBM)

ESF:
2007: 981

EF:
2004: 1652
2005: 1059
2006: 1219
2007: 1048
2008: 1232 (As per article, not BBM)

Grey Cup:
2003: 3078
2004: 3188
2005: 2885
2006: 2898
2007: 2887

zbest, I suspect the report they are showing is the prime time report and not all shows viewed 24 per day.

Give yer head a shake… TSN is a cable network… These kind of surveys never include Cable cause there is no reason…
Like when was the last time Muchmusic or the comedy channel ever cracked the top 30.
I am only guessing but other then the world Juniors …THIS is the only time TSN has cracked the top 30 in their history and they are head and shoulders the number 1 cable channel in Canada!!!