Enjoying (fill in the blank) Champions League: WST Podcast

11 Comments

1. 

   Ra

   May 7, 2022 at 3:03 pm

   Mow for me is the one right now: Schalke vs St Pauli

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     Roberto

     May 7, 2022 at 4:18 pm

     @Ra, at least we both like St. Pauli. I was worried earlier, that they might get promoted. Not sure their fans would have liked that.

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       Ra

       May 7, 2022 at 4:56 pm

       I agree. It is a risky proposition for them. They could get into a limbo by having to invest more than they are capable of. It is a pity that ESPN+ does not cover all Bundesliga 2 matches. I use VPN and get them through Onefootball in South America, with natural stadium sound.

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2. 

   Roberto

   May 7, 2022 at 10:16 am

   In the Podcast this week the English language viewers for the CCL final were mentioned and they were poor. It was acknowledge that the Spanish numbers were better but no actual numbers were provided. They were high and brought the totals to 1.4 million for the first game and 1.5 million for the second. This does look good for the coming League’s cup.

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     dave

     May 7, 2022 at 2:19 pm

     @Roberto, thanks, I was curious about the Spanish numbers. Where do you find Univision OTA data? TUDN had 450k viewers for the May 4 CCL final, so Spanish-language cable drew 50% more viewers than English-language cable. The TUDN broadcast was the 9th highest cable program for ratings among ages 18-49 on May 4. Was Univision OTA ~1 million viewers?
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     The MLS-Liga MX All Star game in 2021 had similar ratios – 1.4 million on Univision/TUDN and 0.2 million on FS1. With MLS and Liga MX being favorite leagues among Hispanic viewers and with Univision offering big games OTA, it is not surprising ~80% watch in Spanish. If everyone plays their cards right, perhaps they strike gold with Leagues Cup

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       Roberto

       May 7, 2022 at 2:24 pm

       @Dave, these came from Soccer America. Maybe Chris can pass on where they get their numbers.

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         dave

         May 7, 2022 at 3:08 pm

         @Roberto, thanks again, looks like the TUDN simulcast was on UniMas which covers less of the US OTA than Univision (e.g., I believe Seattle has Univision OTA but does not have UniMas OTA). Maybe WST know what percent of TUDN cable viewership was in Seattle
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         I checked the site you referenced, and they report May 4 CCL national numbers as: UniMas: 784,000, TUDN: 458,000 (matches what I have seen), FS1: 300,000 (matches WST podcast)

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3. 

   jason

   May 6, 2022 at 10:50 pm

   @dave Norwich and Watford stink. They really do. I don’t seem them getting immediate promotion back in fact next year. (yo yo clubs annoy the hell out of me). But whomever of Everton, Leeds Utd, or Burnley gets relegated ( i hope its Everton), you can say there is not a single league on the planet where they would get relegated from other than the English Premier League.

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     dave

     May 7, 2022 at 1:28 am

     @jason, all models are wrong but some are useful. Caveat aside, the 538 model suggests:
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     * Norwich (SPI 52) would likely be last in La Liga, third last in Bundesliga, promotion-playoff in EFL Championship, sixth in Liga MX, third in MLS
     * Watford (SPI 58) would likely be third last in La Liga, third last in Bundesliga, cusp of auto-promotion in EFL Championship, fourth in Liga MX, first in MLS
     * Leeds/Everton/Burnley/Saints (SPI 64) would likely be safe in La Liga and Bundesliga, auto-promotion in EFL Championship, first in Liga MX, first in MLS
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     Seems to line up with your observations. The CCL final pitted Seattle (SPI 42) vs. Pumas (SPI 44), roughly mid-table EFL Championship. Several higher rated teams were not invited based on 2022 CCL criteria. Discussion I saw on WST is that CCL will change to a format that attempts to book more matchups between stronger MLS and Liga MX teams

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4. 

   dave

   May 6, 2022 at 5:42 pm

   Another fun episode
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   I enjoyed your data about English-language ratings for CCL final. The Seattle market is about 2% of the US and drew about 60% of the viewers. This suggests the English broadcast was 50 to 100 times more popular per-capita in Seattle than in the rest of the US. If FS1 drove 25% of Seattle’s enthusiasm nationwide, they would have had about 2 million viewers
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   Interesting comment and discussion about relegation interest ex-EPL. Your arguments of a greater connection and familiarity with EPL teams seem plausible. Using 538, every team in EPL, even Norwich, is of higher quality than both CCL finalists. EPL relegation battles feature teams that would be in the mix for a good playoff run in Liga MX or MLS. Same for La Liga and Bundesliga, so it is not the only factor driving EPL relegation interest

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     Edwin

     May 7, 2022 at 2:31 pm

     Strongly suggest more and more that FS1 is a detriment to MLS. Most years actually ALMOST every year the FS1/FOX avg viewership brings down the over all MLS TV rating. The sole benefit of FOX is MLS having a stage for its bigger games like last ThanksGiving Day game that had 1.84m viewers.

     FS1 is a poor channel that never really evolved from it Fuel TV racing channel roots. The only thing that does good on FS1 is NHRA Nascar. MLB/CFB/CBB/MLS all underperform what they draw on other channels they air on when they are on FS1.

     FS1 provides the sole source of ridiculer reliably each week for MLS when they air MLS games. Christopher and Kartik use to point out how MLS games on FS1 get 50% of the viewership on FS1 vs ESPN and they’d go at Alexi Lalas and the crew for having poor analysis homer analysis. I used to think they were just picking on MLS calling the crew MLS fan boys. But maybe there is something to the critiques of how FS1 presents MLS and sports and a broader view.

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