Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

2010 and the Ratings Game

By Ben Meisner

-by Ben Meisner

The government of British Columbia and the net works who bought the rights to the 2010, may find themselves digging a bit deeper into the taxpayers pocket book to make up for the short fall in TV rights. 

NBC in the USA who banked on getting their ratings up by dropping over $614 million to get the exclusive rights to the games found they were hammered in the ratings. Neilson showed ratings for the games were down 12.5% from the last games, and a 32.5% drop  since 1998. 

For example American Idol took 27 million viewers, compared to 15.4 million for the games. Both ABC and Fox ran their top shows during the games, a stark departure from the days when you simply acknowledged whoever had the games, had the ratings.

The public hasn’t been so into the games as it has in the past, especially in the US, where the big money for TV comes from. But wait, those numbers were not far behind what the Canadian viewers served up for CBC. 

CBC has been called upon by a host of sponsors who are saying you’ll need to have a bunch of make goods ready to go. Make goods are used when the commercial doesn’t air, or in this case, when it can't grab the size of audience you've been promised, and that kind of feeling trickles on down to the local market. T

here are people in the major networks of the US who are saying the games will appear on the web within the next ten years and you’ll pay for what you want to watch. We may not see it in 2010, but its just around the corner, which then begs the question, if the US TV giants decide they are not about to spend the kind of money they have for the rights, who will make up the short fall?
The quick answer is, B.C. taxpayers.  

You may not be able to afford the 2010 tickets for events but don’t worry, you can take comfort in knowing you are a major contributor, one way or the other.  Keep in mind, previous Olympic financial losses have been measured in the billions, with the exception of the Los Angeles Summer Games which made a profit of $200 million dollars.

On leaving Torino, many media types, (including some from CNN) have been saying they won’t be back, they didn’t like the high rooms rates, the expensive food along with a ho hum attitude from the Italians. That sort of attitude, in Canada we do not want. 

I'm Meisner, and that is one man's opinion.



Previous Story - Next Story



Return to Home