Comments on: NBA Finals Game 5 Ratings: 17.3 Million Watch

By: Robert Seidman

Robert Seidman — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 15:30:49 +0000

You can save the live plus seven posting for sporting events, besides we'll see it anyway.. The problem with boilerplate is it gets stuck everywhere, but I predict even FOX will put such boilerplate in its ratings press releases come the fall.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:48:00 +0000

If ABC actually believed that the only truly valid comparison is Live + Seven Day, then that's all they'd release. Simply by issuing Live + SD comparisons they indicate that they don't believe their own argument.

For sports programs, the difference in audience between Live + SD and Live + 7 is frequently less than 1%. It's certainly not a difference that would cause anyone to say that the Live + SD comparison is an invalid measure of success or failure.

When the Live + 7 figures become available for Game 1 I'll post them. I'll predict with confidence that the difference will be trivial.

By: Mikey

Mikey — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:21:05 +0000

That 15 million turned out to be a great over-under. I don't think it's in the bag yet. If the Celtics win tonight ABC's got to do 17.5 million to get there. Tonight's competition will be a little tougher than the Tonys, the game may not be close, it's a work day which impacts the west coast audience. It's gonna be pretty darn close.

By: Bill Gorman

Bill Gorman — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:49:03 +0000

Very interesting boilerplate indeed. I think the networks are going to be frustrated by this. Most media will not be interested in waiting the extra 2 weeks to get the data to do the Live+7 comparison and will simply go with what's available immediately, which is Live+SD.

I think ABC does have a point, but I think the expediency of the media will render it moot.

And I clearly underestimated the jump that would happen after game 4. Now that I think about it, it makes sense that viewership would jump up for any game that could be the final one.