EARLY NOSEDIVE LEADS TO POOR TV RATINGS
NYI at 0.3 – 28th in NHL, last among locals
by Steve Lepore, Puck The Media
Point Blank guest broadcast analyst
As the Islanders hit the bottom of the NHL’s local TV ratings race, they have to be concerned that a season with a circus atmosphere at times has been largely ignored by viewers on television – even more than in the past.
Islanders telecasts are averaging a discouraging 0.3 household rating in the New York market on MSG Network and its affiliates, down 23% from the 2009-10 campaign, and 17% from the end of last season. They are averaging approximately 24,000 households per game. The Islanders rank 28th among NHL teams in local ratings, ahead of only Atlanta (0.26) and Florida (0.19). Due to the size of the New York market, however, they are far from the bottom five in households tuning in, which featured five NHL teams at 10,000 households or lower.
The Islanders’ drop in viewers, while also explained by another bad season, is part of an overall trend of the three New York-area, MSG televised National Hockey League clubs drawing lower numbers from last year. Though ratings tend to rise toward the conclusion of the year, the Rangers and Devils are both down about 8,000 households from the end of the 2009-10 campaign. The Islanders’ drop from last season is the fifth-worst in the NHL.
The Rangers, who have had a surge in buzz with improved play before their current five-game losing streak, are currently drawing an 0.79 average rating, with 59,000 homes in.
The Devils, terrible until a current 9-1-2 run, have a 0.46 rating, with an average 35,000 homes watching. At the end of last season, the Rangers averaged an 0.89 and 67,000 viewers, while the Devils averaged an 0.58 rating and 43,000 viewers by the end of 2009-10. Both teams could see their ratings rise if the Devils continue to improve and the Rangers stay in the playoff race.
Meanwhile, the three local hockey teams are all squished in between the two local basketball franchises. The Knicks are blowing all the winter sports clubs in the area away with their recent revival, averaging 115,000 viewers, way over what they were drawing last year. The Knicks’ newfound hope seems to have put them clearly ahead of the Rangers again, while as recently as two years ago, the Blueshirts were inching ahead of their fellow tenants. Back in New Jersey, the Nets are below even the Islanders, with an average rating of 0.29 and 22,000 viewers despite having the YES Network to themselves.
You have to look at it as a combination of things, really. The fact is, the Islanders’ crippling losing streak of 20 of 21 games destroyed most hope of gaining momentum in the television ratings and the box office. The Devils have been awful in an already very blase, overly complacent market. The Rangers’ numbers could be attributed in part to the Knicks stealing some of their buzz. Expect the Rangers and Devils to improve towards season’s en. While the Islanders may come nowhere close to the Florida Panthers’ 3,000 households per game, they might continue to slide if the games become increasingly meaningless to anyone except the true die-hards.
The author would like to thank John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, who was very generous with his time and information in support of this article.
Islanders fans: bookmark Puck the Media for NHL broadcast news from top young writerSteve Lepore. Follow Steve on Twitter, too.
Comments on this subject are invited.
62 Responses to EARLY NOSEDIVE LEADS TO POOR TV RATINGS
NYI at 0.3 – 28th in NHL, last among locals
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gary9-19-22 says:
ya think?!?!?!?
who wants to watch a team lose night after night?
A team who never got press in the past has quietly silenced those few that were promoting the team (uh uhm CB).
What you look at the math: consistant loser – shaddy owner (true or not) – cheap out in every aspect of the prganization = no one cares!!!
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Andrew says:
One major issue with telecast is if you are a Verizon customer, you cannot see the games in HD.
The picture/sound quality is awful. Granted, I suck it up and watch when I can but these days, it is 100% better watching hockey in HD
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EricCup says:
I think you stated all the reasons for the ratings decline here. To me, it’s still a credit to MSG that the broadcasts are so professional every time. This, despite having to suffer through Butch as he continues to find that level of criticism that won’t get him fired like Billy Jaffe. I think Butch has improved as the season has gone on and his analysis has been a good listen. My hope is that MSG continues to produce quality broadcasts despite the ratings as I really do enjoy watching when I can’t be at the games.
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IslesNation says:
Obviously losing has a huge part in this but I know for myself I refuse to watch the pregames because there is absolutely nothing interesting on them anymore. While the Devs and Rangers have their analysts breaking down the opponent we have Rob Carlin asking 10 questions to clueless players. It isn’t fun, or funny. Contrary to what CB said yesterday I also think Butchie has made the game a little more difficult to watch. He isn’t critical, he struggles with names, and he sounds like a guy afraid to make a bold statement.
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You have to think as big an issue as the poor play on the ice is the constant moving of the games between MSG+, MSG+2 and who knows what else they call the overflow channels. The channel placement is not even consistent.
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Wonder what an endless loop of Islanders Classics would get for ratings.
Seriously, if the Florida Panthers are getting 3,000 households per game, barely above a test pattern or infomercial for hair in a can, that team needs to be relocated.
And, to improve ratings — and attendance — go back to the 8:00 weeknight starts like they were back 30 years ago. Lots of people can’t get out of work, and get through traffic, to get to a 7:00 game (or get home) on time.
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Mikamakela24 says:
Wang got his msg $$ when they had avg sized payroll in yashin years then goes millstein low payroll…. Msg should sue wang for fraud.
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Will C. says:
Can’t say this wasn’t expect when you lose 25% of the season in one streak. Plus only the diehards find them on
MSG XXIVIXIXIXIXXV. -
Jim Clark says: There are actually 23,999 households besides me who are foolish enough to waste their evenings watching this team?
Does any NHL team start home games at 8PM local? &PM or 730 seems to be modus operandi. An 8PM start would be disastrous for me, but I’m an exception.
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BanGarth says:
I have verizon and no HD is insane , its 2011 and completely unacceptable. I have called and complained but what Dolan and co are doing is worthy of a lawsuit.
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Let’s see,…They fire Jaffe who has a wealth of knowledge and was one of the most respected commentators out there, not to mention very exciting to listen too. He was so good he made me forget Howie-I don’t care anymore-Ranger fan was beside him.
The Ranger games are all in High def and crystal clear. With the Isle games—I feel like I am 8 yrs old in queens watching on ch.9, in fact, I believe the picture was clearer back then.
The Islander’s have no P.R. to market some of the good young players they do have.
I am the biggest die-hard there is. I have not missed an Islander game since I was a kid, Tevoing every game in case I was out, but this year even I could not watch toward the end of that losing streak, it was way to painful!
This team needs to hire people that are respected around the league and know what they are doing to help Garth and Wang. They look beat.
I still believe there is hope for this team. I think we are 2 or 3 good players away from being very good ourselves. can we please stop with the scraping the bottom of the cap floor and give this team a winning chance!
WINNING CURES EVERYTHING!!!! -
Tom says:
Talk about being stupid. I am in Charlotte and purchased Center Ice to watch the Isles…and I still do! But I still believe we are making positive strides…
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Brother Rat says:
Not surprising in the least. I wonder what our ratings like for the first 7 games of the season when we were 4-1-2 and near the top of the conference. But I still watch whenever I’m back on LI, and I listen to more than 50% of the games online. And I certainly attend when they play the Bruins. At least they haven’t replaced Butchie and Rob Carlin with a sock puppet or a CGI creature.
Instead of lowering seat prices by 25% (to a level still far above StubHub giveaways), they should allow for free online streaming games.
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Bryan says:
Is the team really any worse than last year? I guess people are just giving up at this point.
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CG says:
Considering how bad the team is, the ratings could be alot worse. If the Isles were competitive, they would be in the middle of the pack. Everything comes back to winning and losing.
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sean says:
Well the islanders having a bad year doesn’t help. Hockey in general has low ratings because not a lot of people follow it except die hard fans in the US. People claim they can’t see the puck and some claim its too violent with the fighting.
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pablo says:
Good! Charles Wang should be proud!
This is all a reaction to a lack of poor ownership and management.
And lets not forget a lack of winning!It’s is not the Players, because that is what a lack of spending gets.
It is not the building because winning is only as good as the team on the Ice.
It is all one persons doing and Fault!
Charles Wang!!!!!!
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Brian G says:
Not a Big Shock….Wang is Destroying this Franchise in every facet…I guess Wang didn’t learn anything the first 2 years owning this team,if the team wins and is competitive people show more interest for the whole season… buying tickets & watching games on TV….but I guess people don’t do that anymore b/c the season was over in November!
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kevo says:
Snow & Wang’s excuse of the NVMC being the reason why players dont want to come hear is BS. Pittsburgh picked up Hossa and evenually won the Cup.
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NYI FAN says:
Looks like that figure is the remaining diehards; plus former season ticket holders that tune in. I find myself now channel surfing during the games, because sometimes you got to num the pain.
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Bob E says:
Winning fixes everything. but hard to get excited when you already out of playoffs before all star break.
Arena is excuse. Winning cures it all.
Knicks viewership was probably horrendous a few years ago.
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Joe in Massapequa says:
I know it would never happen but I wonder if SNY could/would every buy out the current MSG deal and how it would affect everything. The 7pm starts aren’t easy to catch from the start and I usually DVR the games and just watch them later that same night.
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Chris Stephenson says:
Do the math – 6K at games, 24K watching equals 30K fan base. Obviously more than one person watching at home might skew that figure, but regardless…this is an bad sign.
I don’t know much it affects the ratings to have MSG +/2 in SD. I have FiOS, and they dont have the HD feed yet due to the Dolans playing games. But in any event, this is sad.
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Michael Delman says:
So wait a second….you mean to tell me that losing hockey translates into poor ratings?! Thanks Captain Obvious! Hey, maybe you should write another article on the Islanders “slow, sometimes unsteady rebuild”. This site is like a broken record.
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beachchica says:
I watch every game and won’t stop watching. I have hope for the future with this talented young core. A few talented veterans in the mix and we are headed to the play-offs. I also think it looks as if Poulin is right goalie for this team. DP maybe in a back up role would the way to go and easier on his body. I am hopeful. Let’s just stay healthy!!
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bossjones15 says:
Bottom of the league in the standings and bottom of the league in viewers, doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out. I cannot even see the games in upstate NY. MSG+/2 always goes to the Sabres or the Devils and all the streaming websites are getting seized by DHS.
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Y2G says:
the FIOS thing is a joke. Not only are the games not in HD but when you put on MSG the volume is exponentially louder. Cablevision is cutting their noses to spite their face. By not offering MSG in HD to non-optimum customers they draw interest away from NY Teams and cost themselves revenue. They must have graduated from the same MBA program as our dear Charles Wang
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doggyondown says:
Wow more great news…. the only games i tune into lately have been when someone new is in the lineup… which has been more than i thought. When are we going to see ulstrom
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PotvinRocks says:
No Billy Jaffe & Rick DiPietro’s save percentage is the reaon why people are uninterested in the Islanders telecast.
At least we are out drawing the Nets. Just wait till we are sharing the same building in Brooklyn, talk about a happening building. -
Ryan says:
Ultimately, the reason for this is the team’s performance. To be blunt, especially to the casual fans, the Islanders stink. Most of us diehards will tune in regularly, but to get the casual fan, there has to be a good product on the ice, and the Isles haven’t had one in a few years now…its as simple as that.
As far as myself (a diehard), there are a few issues:Due to the teams performance, I never feel obligated to stay in and watch the game when there are other options. If I happen to be home, which I usually am, I will tune in, but these days, my plans never revolve around the Isles schedule like they might if they were a good team. Another issue is MSG+2. I am a cablevision customer, and MSG+2 is so poor in quality visually that I have literally turned it off rather than watch. This probably wouldn’t be the case if the Isles were good, but there are too many things competing for my home entertainment (hundreds of channels in beautiful HD, Xbox, Netflix, the Internet, books, podcasts, etc.) to sit through a telecast that isn’t only in non-HD, but looks like it is being shot with the cheapest cell phone camera on earth.
For me, I am also a large Knicks fan, and this season, when both teams are on, the Knicks have gotten my attention. I can’t be the only one where this is the case. I dream of the day when I have to make tough decisions on which team to watch live when both are on.
A few people have mentioned Butch Goring as a reason people aren’t watching. I flat out think he is a below average commentator and an absolute shill for the franchise, but the color commentator does not affect ratings whatsoever. Mike Francesa has talked about this often in football when people complain about announcers. No one turns their TV on or off based on the announcers. They might affect the experience, but people will watch a winner no matter who is announcing.
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goislesgo105 says:
I’ve been a diehard Isles fan from the begining. But the truth is that we are the Pittsburgh Pirates/Kansas City Royals of hockey.When you have so many other choices in New York to watch, who other than diehards wants to watch the Isles? Personally I can’t blame them. I keep hoping that there is light at the end of the tunnel and things will get better but so far it seems that the light at the end of the Isles tunnel is still an oncoming train!
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gary says:
If the Isles were a little bit better and on the YES Network, I bet the ratings would double.
I have Fios – I watch the NHL Network over Isles games because the NHL Network is in HD – MSG is NOT.
Also, it pains me that my team is playing on a channel our arch rivals own. How would the Rangers like playing on Nassau Colisium TV??????
Also, Howie Rose is the voice of the Rangers. Bring back Jiggs, or get our own unique identity.
So to recap, the team is lousy, the broadcast network is a horrible at every level from the picture, voice and availability quality, and there’s no hope in sight…..
are we surprised at this?????
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ironIslander77 says:
I blame Butch Goring. He was a great player but he has the voice of a cigar smoking, babling old man in a seedy bar on Hasbeen street. Seriously mam, I know he works for nothing, but he cant even get our own players names right! Just ask Matt Grabner or Jack McDonald! His player credentials don’t cut the mustard. If anything, he sucks the color out of the commentation!
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nola-islander says:
i use to live up state in plattsburgh, up there i got msg and msg+. msg also has rights to the sabers. even being upstate there was a higherarchy of how the teams would be shown if there was a conflict with scedualing. It would be knicks rangers sabers devils and then if no one else was playing the islanders.
i live no down in new orleans, so i bought the gamecenter online thing, i watch the games but the quality of the islanders games is not always up to par, sometime the full screen veiw is not formatted and you get these grey bars on the side -
93Miracle says:
I watch every game, thats all that matters to me. What will people say when the average amount of viewers is up to lets say 40,000 when this team is back in the playoffs and good? I can just not wait till the day where we shut people up!
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Staten Islander says:
Winning will cure this
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eric says:
BRING BILLY JAFFE BACK!!!!!!!!!
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isles83 says:
Sean#17 said: Well the islanders having a bad year doesn’t help. Hockey in general has low ratings because not a lot of people follow it except die hard fans in the US. People claim they can’t see the puck and some claim its too violent with the fighting.
I hear the same complaint from people about following the puck. I have been watching this game for 30 years. And on tv since I was 10 years old and I have no problems following the puck. I think that is a moronic excuse. How hard is it to follow the puck? Another crappy season is why the ratings are bad. BTW other than football what sport has phenominal ratings? With so many ways to see sports nowadays tv ratings are going to suffer.
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Csimiami says:
The isles run a minor league operation and deserve minor league attendance and tv ratings. Problem is wang has few friends and fewer hobbies so he wont sell. My guess is 3 years isles are still in last place and still have lowest payroll in the sport.
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claude says:
I only watch because it makes my life look great in comparison
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StevieL says:
No fans in the stands, nobody watching on TV. No press coverage, no real radio coverage. A silent owner and GM. Does anyone actually have real proof that the Isles do really exist??
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President of Billy Jaffe Fan Club
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Eric says:
I think we all understand winning cures most issue but I still think that this team has done a horrible job in running themselves properly and professionally over the years. This is within their control and should be the easiest thing for them to do moving forward. They need to give themselves legitimacy with how they are run first.
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Tom says:
Once Charles B. Wang goes away & the Isles rejoin the NHL, the ratings will go up. Life is too busy & way too short to watch a 29th placed hockey team or are they 30th now? Who can keep track??
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5w30 says:
MSG Plus-2 aka the overflow channel is available on Cablevision in HD.
It’s just that the other cable operators don’t want it and won’t pay for a part-time HD cable channel unless it’s baseball related [that's right part-owners of SNY are Time Warner and Comcast]
As for FiOS, it’s just JD sticking it to the wired competition. Legally he can, for now.
As for upstate, well the Sabres are upstate’s team – that’s why they chose MSG to be their distributor when the crooks who ran Adelphia Cable had to sell the team. And as part of the deal they get some Knicks and Rangers games too when the Sabres aren’t playing. -
MarioGazz says:
CB, if they didnt take it away from us in the New Haven area of CT those numbers would be slightly higher. Why would they take it away from us 10 games into the season?
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Stumpy32 says:
A couple of things to add:
(1) I’m with a lot of people that, if the Isles had a playoff pulse right now, I’d be scheduling my other activities around watching Isles games on TV. If I’m around, its on. If I’m not, so be it.
(2) Does anyone notice that we get the shaft in a lot more ways than being on the overflow’s overflow channel? There’s never, not once, been an “Islanders in 60,” when there are segments for every Rangers and Devils game. When the Rangers and Devils play each other, we’re still relegated to +2, even though the telecasts on the 1st and 2nd options are LITERALLY the same. Next, when the Rangers and Knicks aren’t on, the Devils get bumped to MSG. Even when the Devils aren’t playing, we’ve never, not once, been on MSG. Always on the Plus, no matter if all other teams are off. Finally, there are no attempts to create a real Isles “magazine”-type show. There was that awfully-produced “Islanders Illustrated” for about 3-4 episodes, which ended abruptly.
The fact is, we’re getting cheated in many ways, and it ends up chicken and egg. Our ratings stink, which relegates us to the second-tier, which limits our visibility, which further depreciates our ratings. If we had a PR staff, or a louder front office, we’d show some response to being continuously slapped in the face. But being that Garth is probably the head of PR now, nothing is forthcoming.
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Isles Revamped says:
The main reason should not just be attributed to the teams lack of success but more towards the fact that a large portions of the games televised have not been in HD.
Isles should hook with SNY and would be a good combination while Mets are in off season. Much better than European Soccer.
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Jerky says:
One would think that fewer fans attending the games live at the Coliseum would translate to more fans watching on tv until the team improves enough to make it worthwhile to spend $$$ again. How does today’s rating compare with previous periods when the Islanders were a bottom-feeder?
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JSExpress says:
I had to move to stupid California for work, so I usually end up listening to the first two periods at work on WHRU, then speed home to catch the third on Center Ice. That said, if the powers that be finally start to operate this team like a professional sports franchise, they will see a reversal in the current TV trends, even in the NY market. It’s not rocket science.
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Mars Bonfire says:
“Back in New Jersey, the Nets are below even the Islanders, with an average rating of 0.29 and 22,000 viewers despite having the YES Network to themselves.”
Why do people not get on the Nets for being a joke of a franchise. They have made the NBA finals twice and thats about it. No one watches their games but the local papers still have a beat writer for them.
They were also last in attendance in the NBA last year (12,800 per game).
For the Nets Wednesday’s game there are currently over 1,000 tickets on Stub Hub for less than $5 a piece.
Yeah Wang can be a jerk at times but the Nets still get much more respect from the local media than the Isles do -
Al L says:
No doubt the perception of irrelevance and losing plays an important part of staleness,but I can’t help but think the uncertainty of the Isles being our future home team plays into the apathy. Until certainty and closure comes to pass this devoted fan finds rooting for our youngsters to blossom surprisingly luke warm,being in a lame duck state of mind,fearing they will be some other cities darlings.
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The NY media only talks about football and baseball now all year long. It’s not good for hockey that baseball and football are spoken about 95% of the time. That coupled with being out of it by Thanksgiving gave people little reason to tune in. The Isles management has done many things since the draft to alienate and anger the fanbase.
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peter debenedetto says:
why does everyone say this is the WORST team out there when we are 1 point behind NJ, Ott, and ahead of EDM?
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Stephen says:
Personally, I feel that the Nielsen Ratings have always been a scam anyway. There are only some 25,000 or 35,000 homes in the entire country that they base these ratings from (don’t remember the exact #). Not New York State, but the whole country. The number of US homes with a TV is around 115 million. So they base everything on around a fifth of one percent. To me that isn’t accurate at all.
Put it this way, if Nielsen selected me as one of the 25,000 tomorrow and I indicated I watched the NY Isles that figure of Islanders eyeballs according to Nielsen increases substantially, by several hundreds or even possibly a thousand. That would be from just one more household watching.
If I only could figure out a way to incorporate a better system. I’d become a billionaire from it and then first order of business would be to purchase the Isles. -
Vlad from Brooklyn says:
They did this to themselfs. I don’t blame people who is asking to be waked up when the rebuild is over. The state of secrecy and denail the organization is living in just pushes many fans away.
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Lav says:
TV ratings or not, the path we are going is the only option we have. We’ll get there. If you we would have stayed the course in the late 90′s we would be much better off right now. STAY THE COURSE.
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Blizzard says: Well i suspect they might get a little boost of viewers looking for what catastrophe comes next.
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shlo says:
I am disappointed that nobody is blaming the old building and no Light House Project….ask Snow and Wang they’ll tell you this is the reason…
it’d be helpful if msg+2 was available in HD and if other cable providers were allowed to get msg+ in HD outside of cablevision on long island (ie: verizon fios). This is 2011, people don’t want to watch sporting events in standard definition. if they arent a die hard fan they aren’t going to put up with that. and that’s no way to make new fans.
i’m sure james dolan is well aware of this.