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10/12 2010

More People Than Ever Before Watched ESPN. It Might Be Soccer’s Fault.

Posted by Dan Levy.

I hate writing about news that’s from yesterday, but before this lines the birdcage, it certainly warrants a mention. From ESPN PR:

ESPN recorded its most-watched fiscal year – and the highest-rated in 20 years. The network averaged 858,000 households on a 24-hour basis, breaking the record set last year (809,000) with an increase of six percent. The network’s total-day rating of 0.9 was the highest in 20 years, equaling the highest ever. In 1990, ESPN averaged a 0.9. All data is according to Nielsen.

Look, I know it’s cool to rip on ESPN, and somehow taking shots at the WWL for everything – including the work of MNF graphics guys — is supposed make us all feel less stuffy and corporate and square. Fine, ESPN is a corporate cog in the giant Disney wheel. Let’s all hate them, mostly because they’ve made more money off their love of sports than we have.

For full disclosure, I get along great with ESPN. They’ve helped us book guests, they’ve helped facilitate credentials to events their network is covering and they’ve been great with whatever ridiculous request I’ve sent them. Seriously, I had two different PR people reply to an email on a holiday weekend with the subject line: “Kenny Chesney”. Who would EVER reply to that?

And this isn’t just me: ESPN’s PR staff is great with everyone. This isn’t 2007 anymore, where sites like Deadspin could market themselves as the anti-ESPN by posting leaked “Do Not Mention” memos. I’m sure Daulerio talks to the ESPN PR staff more than any other sports blogger…heck, probably more than any other sports writer. It’s part of the business, and having been on both sides of it now, there aren’t too many offices that do a better job than ESPN’s PR staff.

That, of course, has nothing to do with the ratings, and is more of a non sequitur framed inside a story about ESPN. We are certainly entitled to hate a product even if the people hired specifically to promote that very product are nice, friendly and helpful. If it were any other way, they’d win (and be really, really great PR people.)

Some people — or programs — on ESPN are not easy to watch. But the network is diverse enough to cater to almost everyone’s needs (unless your need is, say, wiener shots, of course). You love football, but don’t like Chris Berman? Watch NFL Network on Sundays, but get your ESPN football fix with Trey Wingo every weekday. Try to find someone who says a bad word about that guy. I’ll wait…

Yes, sadly, the ESPN machine is unavoidable at times. You can’t watch a big college basketball game without Dick Vitale’s screams about diaper dandies or Digger Phelps’ desperate grasps for attention by matching his marker to his tie or creepily dancing with cheerleaders. That kind of stuff is awful, and it deserves to be mocked ALL THE TIME.

I’m not saying don’t mock ESPN. I’m saying that we just have to acknowledge that current sports world wouldn’t exist without them. There is a lot to hate (AHEM, THE DECISION…AHEM AHEM FAVRE TALK), but there has also been quite a lot to love this year. And that’s where soccer comes in.

Football and “futbol” get much of the credit for ESPN’s success this past year:

Monday Night Football was up 18 percent from FY09 (10.5 vs. 8.9 rating)
The 2010 NFL Pro Bowl aired on ESPN and delivered an 8.2 rating
Regular-season college football was up slightly from FY09, with 4 more games
College Bowl games were up five percent from last year
44 live World Cup games aired in FY10, averaging a 2.0 rating
For the fiscal year, it was also a record for viewership with the P2+ demographic, an average of 1,048,000 viewers on a 24-hour basis, up seven percent from the previous high mark, 975,000 last year.

Everything “wrong” about ESPN was left in Bristol when ESPN hosted the World Cup. Bob Ley, Mike Tirico and Chris Fowler handled the world’s most popular event with professionalism and reverence, without turning the show into a circus or dumbing it down for the American crowd.

More eyes than ever are on ESPN and I don’t just mean this ratings release they put out. We are watching them. They know it — well, maybe the Ombudsman doesn’t know it, but the rest of them certainly do. Let’s hope they’ve learned from this year: more time for productions like South Africa, and less time for bloviating, color coordinating and “Decision” making, would make ESPN even better.

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Posted on October 12, 2010 at 1:47PM
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    10/12 2010

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