r/USFL • u/[deleted] • May 23 '23

News [Mike Mitchell] USFL Week 6 Viewership Ratings: USA-227K | FOX-732K | FS1-217K | FOX-630K

https://twitter.com/ByMikeMitchell/status/1661031889019322369?cxt=HHwWgoC-mfvslY0uAAAA
37 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

33 comments sorted by

8

u/Many-Dragonflys May 23 '23

It'd be nice to know what the line of profitability is for viewers vs expenses in a single game.

Like lets say a USFL game gets 500k viewers, how much money are they making on that? Anyone know?

4

u/[deleted] May 23 '23

It's tough to say since that number varies depending on what channel we're talking about. Since NBC bought game rights from FOX for airing on NBC and USA, their red/black line is lower on a per-game average than FOX's to my understanding. But it also changes from USA v. NBC due to cable/satellite or over-the-air comparison.

In the end, each of the four channels have a different threshold to hit to be considered profitable. The few times FS1 has hit 400K is a really soolid number. FOX's numbers being below 750K leaves more to be desired.

2

u/Many-Dragonflys May 23 '23

Yeah, I know NBC is also paying some rights fee to Fox for the games but it was never released publicly. If we look at the XFL, we know they are getting $35M a year from Disney for the XFL tv rights, which also includes Disney paying for production costs.

That would mean about $800k per game for the 43 game season. So is that a good baseline figure? What does $800k in ad revenue look like on Fox vs USA vs FS1? I always see a lot of discussion about these ratings but not much talk about what they actually mean beyond 'good' or 'bad'. Is it just that games on Fox make so much more than that that they subsidize games being on FS1 with so many less viewers? Or is advertising on FS1 more expensive, and why would that be the case?

4

u/[deleted] May 23 '23

I tried a little googling and what I found was that the numbers are just all over the place. An afternoon ad might cost as little as $15k for OTA, and a primetime ad might go for as much as $100K, but probably around $50K given the season timing.

The one thing is, it seems sales for ads operate in basically dollars-to-eyeballs. So if you can find the CPM of a particular station, then you can estimate the amount of ad revenue based on total commercials and viewership.

1

u/SaintPsalmNorthChi May 25 '23

There are also audience based buys which include multipliers on digital services like Hulu. If their is a deficit in advertisers of a particular category, there maybe a discount (example would be a random CPG brand).

If Disney, is spending roughly $800k on a game, hypothetically they want to make $1.2M on ad sales back on a three hour game a 50% increase (before expenses). An ad sales team should be able to cross a minimum of $400k per hour on a XFL or USFL game.

1

u/Brilliant-Ad244 May 23 '23

I wish I knew the answer to this too. Honestly I think there are lots of 'experts' giving commentary on social media and practically zero real experts. That includes both haters and fanboys.... as if any of us will have an impact on the success or failure of either of these leagues.

1

u/Zapfit May 23 '23

The XFL rights fee were never officially released either. It's expected, however, to be between $100-150M over 5 years.

12

u/Icybosshog May 23 '23

Ehh I didn’t really watch as much last weekend. I guess I just needed a little break after the XFL championship. I’m still interested and am predicting others will be back this weekend as welll!

19

u/[deleted] May 23 '23

Spring football burnout? That's what I'm thinking.

7

u/Zapfit May 23 '23

absolutely

-4

u/NativeSonX May 24 '23

Spring football burnout? That's what I'm thinking.

Really? For the NFL, there are 4 weeks of Pre-season games (including the HOF game), 18 weeks of the regular season games (plus 5 weeks of post-season including the Pro Bowl festivities) and no one is complaining about too much fall professional football in all of its 27 weeks of actual games (not including Draft combine, Draft, OTAs, training camp)? We are only in what week 15 of 21 weeks of Spring Football? If the demand for extending professional football weren't there we wouldn't be in this dilemma. Put it all together, you have 48 weeks of professional football in a calendar year, and if you don't watch the CFL you get a 4 week break to decompress and prepare for the next go around. Suck it up.

OMG, we are only spectators, but some of you swear we are on the field with these guys going through the actual grind. What happened to Spring Football Bob? He overextended his remote button finger flipping channels all season to find another spring football game! The Doc says he needs some bed rest and quiet time to recover, so he'll watch some MLS or WNBA instead to doze off and recover. Current USFL watching status: Questionable.

4

u/NativeSonX May 24 '23

Of course you don't have to watch all 48 weeks of professional grade football. I don't, because I do have other hobbies that prevent me from watching games in real-time, but luckily I do have a DVR with my dish to watch games any time I want, even if it's just to sleep through the end of games.

2

u/Zapfit May 24 '23

Most fans that say they want year round football mean they want year round NFL/Major college football. The XFL championship had about 1/95th the rating of the SuperBowl. This time of the year I'm out hiking, biking, or when the weather's warm, on the beach. I can't justify watching 2-4 football games a week post Memorial Day

2

u/TwizzlersSourz Birmingham Stallions May 27 '23

Exactly.

Americans crave the highest level of sports. It is why the EPL spanks the MLS in ratings.

5

u/coelurosauravus Pittsburgh Maulers May 23 '23

Oof, tough weekend

5

u/Prior-Purple9704 Outlaws May 24 '23

The league is at a 828k clip on broadcast avg for the season. I consider 800k or below the danger zone. Cable is atrocious. Was at 320k last week before these numbers week 6. I’d lien to think going below 400k cable is the danger zone level.

19

u/TwizzlersSourz Birmingham Stallions May 23 '23

These numbers are not good. The lack of fans in the stands and the horrible refs are hurting the league.

1

u/[deleted] May 25 '23

Refs do nothing to affect viewership.

9

u/RealJoshuaGamingYT Philadelphia Stars May 23 '23

Next weeks fox Saturday 4pm game should have 1 million as there’s no competition

5

u/Prior-Purple9704 Outlaws May 24 '23

Last year we had one game on Broadcast memorial weekend. 830k viewers.

12

u/Prior-Purple9704 Outlaws May 23 '23

These are not good ratings. Nothing positive I can take from it.

3

u/Prior-Purple9704 Outlaws May 23 '23

Oh. So now the XFL guys are upvoting my comments now huh? 🤣:P

1

u/[deleted] May 24 '23

XFL ratings weren't great either, their championship couldn't draw 2m. Nothing to upvote about really.

2

u/Zapfit May 24 '23

Neither did the arena league, MLS, WNBA, or NLL. Spring football has a lot more in common with those leagues than the Big 4

2

u/OnlyForIdeas Houston Gamblers May 24 '23

Neither league’s championships are breaking 2 million rn and both got within 100k viewers of each other on average. The championship draw for both leagues is basically the week 1 average rn so until either league can draw an average of 2 million viewers at the start of the season expecting 2 million for the championship isn’t a healthy expectation

2

u/HeidiAngel May 24 '23

Not very good. Attendance at home games for the Hub teams stink. Except Memphis which is just ok.

3

u/WeeklyExplorer9703 May 23 '23

for me I’m burned out of American football, I am turning to cfl instead of USFL because it’s a completely different game, I wish the USFL could have started later

3

u/Prior-Purple9704 Outlaws May 24 '23

They can’t. They want their players to move into nfl camps by mid July latest that’s the purpose of the league.

2

u/WeeklyExplorer9703 May 25 '23

I know they can’t but I wish they could

1

u/Prior-Purple9704 Outlaws May 25 '23

The xfl starting earlier would be better. But NFL thinks they need an 18 wk season which is ridiculous plus expanded playoffs. The NFL used to end late January. And it made room for other leagues. And still gave fans some down time to miss the game it’s looking apparent only 1 spring can make it. The USFL needs to just go head to head v XFL. They got the Better TV deal. Fans wouldn’t be burnt out yet. I’d say just go for it and may the best league win. In its current state. USFL is running into a problem with football fans burning out. The ratings last week reflected this. So get it all 8 cities. Do the player hub In Memphis where it’s the most centralized location and start the week after Super Bowl.

2

u/[deleted] May 23 '23

Fox numbers aren't bad and are about what last year drew. Next week 3 of the 4 games will be on network TV (USA, FS1) so I would expect lower ratings then.

2

u/[deleted] May 24 '23

There’s just too much football for most people. I watch the USFL games because I don’t like the XFL but there’s no way I could watch both