Philadelphia Union beaten by Barcelona in national television ratings
Here's an interesting measuring stick with which to gauge the national resonance of Major League Soccer.
Philadelphia Union beaten by Barcelona in national television ratings
Jonathan Tannenwald, Philly.com
Here's an interesting measuring stick with which to gauge the national resonance of Major League Soccer.
MLS has grown in a lot of ways in recent years, from in-stadium attendances to recognition across social media. But the league's television ratings have not changed much over time. They have grown a little bit, but in general they remain pretty small.
The problem was made clear last November, when the MLS Cup Final on ESPN was watched by fewer people than a tape-delayed English Premier League game on the Fox network. That caused a lot of consternation in the American soccer community, especially among people who try to convert fans of European leagues to MLS.
You can argue that it wasn't entirely fair to measure a cable audience against a network television audience. It's also of consequence that the Sunday night NFL that was on at the same time as the MLS Cup Final was Eagles at Giants, which took away two of the nation's biggest TV markets.
This past weekend presented MLS with a fairer test.
The only MLS game of the weekend that was televised nationally in English was the Union's game against the Columbus Crew on NBC Sports Network. At almost exactly the same time, ESPN was broadcasting a Spanish league game between powerhouse Barcelona and Levante.
Obviously, Barcelona is a big deal. But the Spanish league in general does not attract the same amount of attention in the United States as the English Premier League, or even the Mexican league.
Tuesday afternoon, NBC Sports Network and ESPN published the ratings numbers for their respective broadcasts. The head-to-head battle resulted in a clear loss for MLS.
The Union-Crew broadcast, which ran from 3:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. Eastern, drew an average of 126,000 viewers. During the game itself, the average viewership was 139,000.
The Barcelona-Levante broadcast, which ran from 3:55 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., drew 296,000 viewers on ESPN and 489,000 viewers on ESPN Deportes.
ESPN's soccer audience was well more than twice that of NBC Sports Network's. And if you combine the two ESPN networks' audiences, you end up with 785,000 people who were watching soccer other than MLS at that hour. Factor in anyone who was watching Fox Soccer, GolTV or any of the Spanish-language networks, and that number only grows.
MLS also hurt its own cause by having three other games take place during Philadelphia-Columbus. New England-D.C. and Seattle-Colorado kicked off at 4:00 p.m., and Toronto-Chivas USA kicked off at 4:30 p.m.
Obviously, any league can have scheduling conflicts that lead to a scenario like this. But to have three games going at the same time as a national television broadcast seems to me to be a bit much.
Furthermore, Seattle is the league's strongest television market, and New England and D.C. are both conference rivals of the Union and Crew. Those are significant groups of viewers that would almost surely have been watching their own teams' games.
We'll never know whether the combined fan bases of the five American teams that played Saturday afternoon would have made up the difference. But it's hard to imagine that it wouldn't have had any impact.
If there's any lesson MLS can take from Saturday's ratings, it's to not have other games at the same time as national TV broadcasts. I'm sure no one has to tell the people at MLS headquarters that, but it's still worth saying.
Through six games this year, NBC Sports Network's MLS broadcasts have drawn an average of 56 percent more viewers than Fox Soccer Channel's MLS broadcasts did. That's a significant increase, and it justifies MLS going for NBC's greater exposure over Fox's greater rights fee.
But Saturday's numbers show just how much farther MLS has to grow in order to really attract all the soccer fans in the country.
The next big ratings test for MLS will come May 5, with two national TV games involving big markets and star-laden teams. Seattle hosts Philadelphia at 4:30 p.m. on NBC Sports Network, and Los Angeles hosts New York at 8:00 p.m. on ESPN.
Once again, though, there will be other games going on at the same time. Toronto hosts D.C. at 4:30 p.m., Vancouver hosts San Jose at 7:00, Real Salt Lake hosts New England at 8:00 and Kansas City hosts Montréal at 8:30.
We'll see what the numbers are that day, and we'll see if MLS does a better job of avoiding conflicts with its national TV broadcasts in future years. It will likely always be hard to fight the giants of England and Spain. But as MLS and its fans know well, the self-inflicted wounds are often those that hurt the most.
I think we are missing some key stats here. A) MLS on ESPN draws 3 times the audience that NBCSN draws (350,000 vs 115,000) with those numbers in mind than Barcelona was a worst draw than a typical MLS game. Also, this comparisons begs the question what does a normal Barcelona game draw on ESPN (games that arn't Real Madrid)? The obvious point is the ratings suck for both but at least we are seeing an increase of nearly 60% from going from Fox Soccer to NBCSN and that with more brand recognition for NBCSN and it being a soccer channel should only see that number grow.— Jmcurto- Just to be clear, the Barcelona game in question was not against Real Madrid. It was against Levante. ESPN does not have the English-language rights to any of the Barcelona-Real Madrid broadcasts this season, GolTV has them.
- I'm not surprised at all. There are a bunch of factors involved, but first and foremost is about ESPN itself. One is far likelier to see a Barcelona highlight than a MLS one. Second, MLS only shows up on ESPN's ticker about once every 3 or 4 loops, but every loop shows the EPL, FMF, or La Liga. Most importantly, the NBCSN number is about double what a similar contest on FSC would have pulled in. If MLS wants their TV numbers to grow, they need to grow them themselves. What happened to the highlight show we thought we were getting on NBCSN? What happened to the MLS Review show on MLSSoccer.com? Is it too much to ask ESPN to show a 30 second highlight of the MLS match they broadcast on their own network?
MLS is young and growing. Right now, it needs water and food to grow. That sustinance is ESPN, and SportsCenter is the key. American sports fans don't seek out their favorite sports, they are force fed a steady diet of highlights and talking heads. MLS doesn't have that. You can't even get a decent commentary on the UEFA Champions League, let alone why Kansas City is off to a 6-0 start. ESPN needs to nurture MLS, and right now, all they spread on MLS is good old All American Natural Fertilizer.— ChefJim27 - This strikes me as a fairly masturbatory exercise. Two of the worst teams in MLS, on a still low profile channel, have lower ratings than the best and most exciting team in the world. And by the way Barcelona has the top team sports athlete in the world too? If it weren't the Union playing I wouldn't have watched it either.
What's more impressive is the general interest in soccer, which is good for everyone involved. MLS is playing the long game or they wouldn't even be here.— philsoc8 
Too bad the ratings at Guantanamo Bsy weren't included as it would have inflated the numbers by a large measure. With all the attention to water boarding, the new method of "enhanced" interrigation is forcing the prisoners to watch MLS footie-ball. Woof woof— HappyBob- MLS does a horrible job of marketing themselves IMO. IMO they never take advantage of breaks in the major sports schedules. when basketball on all star or baseball hasn't started yet, several times i've sat down looking for sports on TV wonder why MLS is not taking advantage of these breaks with a game and then when they finally do have a game, they do no tv advertising of that game. IMO there seems to be room for MLS on TV and a market for their game, but they have yet to prove to be PTPers.
Comment removed.- Yeh I'm with philsoc8. This is the most unsurprising article I can imagine. I haven't watched an MLS game in years, but watch EPL or Spanish league soccer almost every weekend. Why? Because they players there are GOOD AT SOCCER.— kilo_005
- MLS fans watch their team. Soccer fans watch Messi.— buzzkiller23
- As a Union fan and soccer fan in general, I, personally wouldn't watch a match of, say, the Dynamo v Whitecaps over a Barca game... I'd watch a Union game over it, yea. The other thing is that my TiVo is almost always left on ESPN, CSN, or Fox Soccer...so how does that work? Even if my TV is off, but I'm pulling a signal through my TiVo - do I count as a "viewer"?— mrstylz
- i have favorite teams in la liga, bundesliga, premier leage, and serie a. i watched the barca game later on espn3 and watched the union game live. when any match is on espn3 that i can watch later, i will. so for me, i watch the union game over the others because i have to watch it live, i can't watch it later.— themword
- I was one of those few who watched the Union game. It was a pretty (typical) dreadful exhibition of MLS soccer. If my kids weren't dead set on watching Union, I'dve probably watched Barca too. I'd have watched a Bundesliga 2 match over the Union/Crew. At least then I'd likely see more than 20% of the passes connect with intended recipients.....— Amorris1pa
Reach Jonathan at jtannenwald@phillynews.com or 215-854-2330.
