Raps TV Ratings - "Still struggling" or Finally competing?

[slaw]

The jays are bigger than hockey right now. And nobody over 40 in canada watches the nba.

Hi there! Actually, there are a lot of basketball fans in my demographic. Just not a lot of Raptors fans. Two different things.

These ratings thing always make me laugh. The Jays have a national following built up over 40 odd years and it's not like baseball wasn't popular in Canada before the Jays existed. Basketball is a relatively new beast on the scene and the Raptors fan base is limited to the Toronto area. And, Jebus, I would hope that a playoff game in the national sport (yes, yes, I know it's lacrosse smart guy) featuring the game's two biggest stars would outdraw basketball....

[rightsideup]

The jays are bigger than hockey right now. And nobody over 40 in canada watches the nba.

I am 55 and in 1993 or so quit watching hockey and switched to NBA bought a book on the dream team and somehow was drawn to the sport.

[Primer]

First, the Raptors game 7 had a higher average audience than the most watched NHL Playoff game this year, how the fuck is that bad?

Second, the Raps 1.53M is still a lot more than the Jays 1.1M. More Canadians are watching basketball than baseball.
Further, from sportsnet, "A total of five Blue Jays broadcasts this season have surpassed the 1 million viewer mark." That's out of 27 games, only 5 broke 1 million viewers.

How many viewers did the Raps average for regular season? How many of their regular season games broke 1M? Without that info, pretty damn hard to say baseball is doing better than basketball.

Lastly, also from sportsnet, " Toronto Blue Jays audiences are up 58% this year." What do you know, winning last year led to increased viewership this year. I'd expect an increase in Raptors viewers next year too as we've finally made the 2nd round and set a franchise high in wins.

[Raptor Jesus]

Hi there! Actually, there are a lot of basketball fans in my demographic. Just not a lot of Raptors fans. Two different things.

These ratings thing always make me laugh. The Jays have a national following built up over 40 odd years and it's not like baseball wasn't popular in Canada before the Jays existed. Basketball is a relatively new beast on the scene and the Raptors fan base is limited to the Toronto area. And, Jebus, I would hope that a playoff game in the national sport (yes, yes, I know it's lacrosse smart guy) featuring the game's two biggest stars would outdraw basketball....

This...

I've been following the ratings and on the year. They were barely outpacing last years 250,000ish viewers. And up until this game 7 struggling in the playoffs in the 500-600k range. That said HNIC up until this year was a virtual lock for 2 mill and now is only seeing 1.5 in the playoffs and thankful for it; based almost solely on Ovie vs Crosby.

A good showing could help push the Raptors into the lime light on main channels over out of town hockey next year. Growing the sport, maybe numbers on RRBoards and rec leagues. Best of all it for damn sure will drive the ad buy price out of BMO's range and save us all the agony of their moronic media.

[Raptor Jesus]

For anyone looking;

Chris is the most reliable Sports Ratings Outlet I've found that has a reasonable take and insights.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/author/chris-zelkovich/

For example;

By Chris Zelkovich 26 April, 2016 5:30 PM Eh Game:

Here are the most-watched sports events from the past weekend, according to Numeris overnight ratings:

1. NHL, Panthers at Islanders, Sunday, CBC: 1,200,000

2. NHL, Blues at Blackhawks, Saturday, CBC: 959,000

3. NHL, Flyers at Capitals, Friday, CBC: 767,000

4. MLB, Athletics at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet One: 739,000

5. MLB, Athletics at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet One: 696,000

6. MLB, Athletics at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet One: 651,000

7. NHL, Sharks at Kings, Friday, CBC: 562,000

8. NHL, Predators at Ducks, Saturday, Sportsnet: 511,000

9. NHL, Islanders at Panthers, Friday, Sportsnet: 483,000

10. NHL, Capitals at Flyers, Sunday, CBC: 449,000 (NBC audience not measured)

11. NBA, Raptors at Pacers, Saturday, Sportsnet: 379,000

12. NHL, Stars at Wild, Sunday, Sportsnet: 365,000

13. NHL, Rangers at Penguins, Saturday, Sportsnet 360: 285,000 (NBC audience not measured)

14. Mixed martial arts, UFC 197 preliminaries, Saturday, TSN: 173,000

15. PGA, Valero Texas Open final round, Sunday, Global: 159,000

16. Auto racing, NASCAR Toyota 400, Sunday, TSN: 146,000 (Fox audience not measured)

17. NBA, Warriors at Rockets, Sunday, TSN: 127,000

Soccer, Leicester at Swansea, Sportsnet One: 125,000

18. PGA, Valero Texas Open third round, Saturday, Global: 123,000

19. Hockey, World under-18 semis, Canada vs. Sweden, ?, TSN: 105,000

20. NBA, Spurs at Grizzlies, Sunday, TSN: 97,000

[Bendit]

What about online streaming numbers. I dont believe it's included and judging by the requests in the forums here many get their fixes on their other devices.

Also why dont those tards not give the Raps noon tip offs. Also comparing the NHL lottery where the biggest hockey market was likely to get the #1 pick is an outlier event...and did it not end before the Raptors game started?

[KeonClark]

Also comparing the NHL lottery where the biggest hockey market was likely to get the #1 pick is an outlier event...and did it not end before the Raptors game started?

Also edmonton vancouver calgary Winnipeg Montreal and Ottawa had a chance at the top pick lol. And it wasn't just some stand alone event the lottery took place in intermission of a big playoff game.

They really went out of their way to spin it as bad ratings for the raptors, when it reality it was the 2nd or 3rd highest rated sporting event since what..the superbowl?

[CNinja26]

Hi there! Actually, there are a lot of basketball fans in my demographic. Just not a lot of Raptors fans. Two different things.

These ratings thing always make me laugh. The Jays have a national following built up over 40 odd years and it's not like baseball wasn't popular in Canada before the Jays existed. Basketball is a relatively new beast on the scene and the Raptors fan base is limited to the Toronto area. And, Jebus, I would hope that a playoff game in the national sport (yes, yes, I know it's lacrosse smart guy) featuring the game's two biggest stars would outdraw basketball....

Yeah, I don't even watch hockey and I watched Crosby vs Ovechkin. Talk about cherry picking to skew stats for a story.

[Axel]

I don't even get Sportsnet with my cable package (despite having HD PVR and 4 TSN channels), so accessibility may skew numbers. TSN seems much more readily available (which I assume had the draft lotto on).

Online streaming definitely seems like an unaccounted demographic.

[enlightenment]

The Jays thing is disappointing though. When a regular season game for the Jays is getting almost as many viewers as Game 7 for the Raps it really shows that it's not just behind the NHL.

The Jays were a few games from winning the championship, and they are the most recent team to win a championship, infact two of them. There is a HUGE Jays fanbase that is now cross-generational and they have the real hopes of winning a championship. It makes sense.

[GorapsGO123]

at the very most there are probably under 1000 people streaming raptors games, and thats if your lucky....basketball just doesnt have that following compared with NFL, NHL and MLB...jays outdrew most of raptors playoff games like seriously whats going on

[GorapsGO123]

Also edmonton vancouver calgary Winnipeg Montreal and Ottawa had a chance at the top pick lol. And it wasn't just some stand alone event the lottery took place in intermission of a big playoff game.

They really went out of their way to spin it as bad ratings for the raptors, when it reality it was the 2nd or 3rd highest rated sporting event since what..the superbowl?

2nd or 3rd event since superbowl? Leafs games get close to 2 million every saturday

[OldSkoolCool]

You know the solution to poor TV ratings?

Having a superstar that pulls American media to broadcast our games...

[S.R.]

Baseball is still a huge, huge sport. It's no embarrassment to draw less than the Jays. Most places I've lived have far more youth baseball teams than basketball teams. Coast to coast in this country you'll see far more Jays caps than Raptors caps.

Raptors' best days are still ahead of them. Just look at the crowd at the ACC - it's so diverse, a lot of people (and their kids) coming to this country are more drawn to basketball than NA sports like baseball, hockey, and football. The basketball demographic will keep growing.

[OldSkoolCool]

Baseball is still a huge, huge sport. It's no embarrassment to draw less than the Jays. Most places I've lived have far more youth baseball teams than basketball teams. Coast to coast in this country you'll see far more Jays caps than Raptors caps.

Raptors' best days are still ahead of them. Just look at the crowd at the ACC - it's so diverse, a lot of people (and their kids) coming to this country are more drawn to basketball than NA sports like baseball, hockey, and football. The basketball demographic will keep growing.

This also. All the 20-30 year olds on this board are most likely the first generation of Raptor/basketball fans in their families. Another 10-20 years when the 2nd gen of kids comes into basketball in the first gen's wake will blow up the ratings

The old farts are just ahead of their time. Kudos