Local Nielsen ratings snapshot (Thurs., Oct. 8) -- Rangers find it tough to get noticed with day game on FS1
10/09/15 10:08 AM
By ED BARK
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
For those not yet familiar with it, FS1 is neither a new high energy drink or a missile system.
It’s short for Fox Sports 1, where the Texas Rangers opened post-season play Thursday with a gritty 5-3 win in a day game at Toronto.
The still fledgling network was launched a little over two years ago, supplanting Speed. A good number of cable and satellite subscribers still don’t have it and Nielsen Media Research has given up on the idea of measuring sports bar and workplace viewing. All of which is prelude to saying that Thursday’s D-FW ratings show that CBS’Thursday Night Football game between the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans drew a larger viewing audience than Rangers-Blue Jays.
Running until 5:30 p.m., the Rangers game averaged 254,966 viewers with an escalating audience that peaked at 393,590 viewers for the closing 15-minute segment.
Later on Thursday, Colts-Texans averaged 276,214 viewers on CBS and drew another 70,824 on NFL Net for a grand total of 347,038 viewers. But the Rangers’ peak crowd nipped the high point for football, which drew 382,450 viewers between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m. on CBS/NFL Net.
Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, Rangers-Blue Jays averaged 117,501 viewers while Thursday Night Football had 196,893 on CBS/NFL Net.
The Rangers get an even earlier day game Friday on the MLB network before having to go against NBC’s Sunday Night Football with their first prime-time game (on FS1 again). Why such a kiss-off? In large part it’s because the TV audience in Toronto’s home market, which obviously will be inflated, is not included in the U.S. ratings average. All of the other post-season match ups have two U.S. teams competing, including the top three markets of New York (the Mets), Los Angeles (the Dodgers) and Chicago (the Cubs). D-FW is the fifth largest TV market.
Elsewhere in prime-time Thursday, NBC’s 7 p.m. episode of Heroes Reborn and Fox’s 8 p.m. hour of Bones tied for the fewest total viewers among the Big Four broadcast networks. Each show had 77,906 viewers. Heroes Reborn easily registered lowest among 18-to-49-year-olds with just 15,879 viewers in this key demographic.
Here are Thursday’s local news derby results.
TEGNA8 swept a downsized three-way competition at 10 p.m. with wins in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).
Fox4 ran the table at 6 a.m. and also finished first with 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 and 6 p.m.
NBC5 had the most total viewers at 5 p.m. and TEGNA8 took the top spot in that measurement at 6 p.m.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net
@unclebarkycom on Twitter
For those not yet familiar with it, FS1 is neither a new high energy drink or a missile system.
It’s short for Fox Sports 1, where the Texas Rangers opened post-season play Thursday with a gritty 5-3 win in a day game at Toronto.
The still fledgling network was launched a little over two years ago, supplanting Speed. A good number of cable and satellite subscribers still don’t have it and Nielsen Media Research has given up on the idea of measuring sports bar and workplace viewing. All of which is prelude to saying that Thursday’s D-FW ratings show that CBS’Thursday Night Football game between the Indianapolis Colts and Houston Texans drew a larger viewing audience than Rangers-Blue Jays.
Running until 5:30 p.m., the Rangers game averaged 254,966 viewers with an escalating audience that peaked at 393,590 viewers for the closing 15-minute segment.
Later on Thursday, Colts-Texans averaged 276,214 viewers on CBS and drew another 70,824 on NFL Net for a grand total of 347,038 viewers. But the Rangers’ peak crowd nipped the high point for football, which drew 382,450 viewers between 8:15 and 8:30 p.m. on CBS/NFL Net.
Among advertiser-prized 18-to-49-year-olds, Rangers-Blue Jays averaged 117,501 viewers while Thursday Night Football had 196,893 on CBS/NFL Net.
The Rangers get an even earlier day game Friday on the MLB network before having to go against NBC’s Sunday Night Football with their first prime-time game (on FS1 again). Why such a kiss-off? In large part it’s because the TV audience in Toronto’s home market, which obviously will be inflated, is not included in the U.S. ratings average. All of the other post-season match ups have two U.S. teams competing, including the top three markets of New York (the Mets), Los Angeles (the Dodgers) and Chicago (the Cubs). D-FW is the fifth largest TV market.
Elsewhere in prime-time Thursday, NBC’s 7 p.m. episode of Heroes Reborn and Fox’s 8 p.m. hour of Bones tied for the fewest total viewers among the Big Four broadcast networks. Each show had 77,906 viewers. Heroes Reborn easily registered lowest among 18-to-49-year-olds with just 15,879 viewers in this key demographic.
Here are Thursday’s local news derby results.
TEGNA8 swept a downsized three-way competition at 10 p.m. with wins in both total viewers and 25-to-54-year-olds (main advertiser target audience for news programming).
Fox4 ran the table at 6 a.m. and also finished first with 25-to-54-year-olds at 5 and 6 p.m.
NBC5 had the most total viewers at 5 p.m. and TEGNA8 took the top spot in that measurement at 6 p.m.
Email comments or questions to: unclebarky@verizon.net