The SportsBusinessDaily came out with a very convenient list of the top rated sporting events in 2006. Here are some notes:
The NFL accounted for nine of the top ten rated sporting events on network television and all of the ten highest rated events on cable. Four college football games and somewhat surprisingly, four baseball playoff games, accounted for eight of the top ten non-NFL rated sporting events of the year on broadcast. The NBA, which didn’t account for any of the top ten rated broadcasts on network television, saw brighter numbers on cable, where five games accounted for the top twelve (there were two ties) rated games on cable. College football also succeeded on cable, with six of the top twelve.
Outside of football, ratings were down for Major League Baseball and NASCAR. Despite increased playoff ratings, the NBA still had a dismal year on network television, while doing fairly well on cable. College basketball saw increased national interest thanks to the run of George Mason, but that interest did not translate to the National Championship game (which despite a sharp drop in ratings from 2005, still ended up being the third highest rated championship sporting event of the year). Golf continued to have mediocre ratings; majors not named The Masters scored ratings around a 4 to 6 range. Tennis continued to sink in the ratings, while the World Cup did very well for ABC.
Overall, 2006 will likely go down as one of the lowest rated years for sports on television. Only football managed to buck the trend of declining ratings.
For 2007: expect ratings for football to decline somewhat from this year’s peak. The drop shouldn’t be drastic; I predict a decline of anywhere from one to five percent for both college and the pros. Ratings for Major League Baseball should increase dramatically on cable, thanks to a new TV deal that shifts most playoff games to TBS. NBA ratings should remain fairly stagnant; a slight increase on the broadcast side wouldn’t be too surprising, thanks to a fairly strong schedule of regular season games on ABC. NASCAR stands to have the largest increase of all the sports ratings-wise; a new TV deal with hype-master ESPN will drive new viewers to the sport during its Chase for the Cup.
