NFL Playoffs Benefit From Social Media

The amazing NFL Playoff game on Saturday (1/4) between Houston and Buffalo finished with strong ratings as a larger than expected audience watched the exciting conclusion. This telecast proved to be the highest rated Wild Card game ever on ESPN/ABC, and was up 14% over last year when the Texans played Indianapolis, another small market team.

As impressive as this is, the feeling is that these ratings would not have happened if the same game was 20 years ago. This all shows the power of social media. It was the ratings during the late 4th quarter and overtime which were the strongest during the time period. That shows that more fans tuned in for the outcome.

How did they know? Without social media, as well as group texts, many of the fans who tuned in would not have been alerted 20 years ago. Those watching would not have been able to individually call numerous friends and family members to ask them to tune in. Now, with social media posts and group texts, the opportunity is there to instantly increase an audience.

One other interesting find from these ratings. On the individual markets list, the highest market rating for this game for a market without a local NFL team was Norfolk. While we can understand this Virginia market scoring high ratings for the Redskins (and division rival Cowboys) telecasts, two distant AFC teams would not figure to attract major interest. 


Afternoon drive competition is heating up the winter for the major east coast market sports stations as we begin the new year.

In Philadelphia, WPEN 97.5 Sports Fanatic's afternoon show, led by Mike Missanelli (along with Tyrone Johnson and Natalie Egenolf) has just taken the lead over WIP-FM's Marks & Reese. The significance is that WIP-FM is ahead of Sports Fanatic during the other times of the day and night. This December ratings boost comes after WIP-FM led in this time slot for the earlier three quarters of 2019.

Both afternoon shows actually increased their overall ratings by at least 20% over 2018. Missanelli and crew have another advantage, since their show is simulcast over NBC Sports Philadelphia. Those viewership ratings do not count toward the Sports Fanatic audience.

Mornings are a different story in Philly. WIP-FM's Angelo Cataldi, Rhea Hughes, and Al Morganti remain solidly ahead of Marc Farzetta and Tra Thomas on WPEN.

The NYC afternoon battle will be more interesting for the first part of 2020. We begin the year with WEPN's Michael Kay Show leading the way  in afternoons, while WFAN begins its revised weekday lineup. Joe Benigno and Evan Roberts officially begin this week as the afternoon team (2 to 6 PM), moving from the midday slot.

They replace Mike Francesa, who remains with WFAN only for his new 6:00 to 6:30 PM show. The first quarter of 2020 will be critical to the afternoon drive battle going into baseball season. While WFAN is the flagship for the Yankees games, Michael Kay, as the play-by-play voice for most Yankees telecasts, has significant access to Yankees content for his show as well.

By the way, WFAN has confirmed that John Sterling will return for Yankees radio play-by-play this year at the age of 81. For the 16th season, he will be joined by Suzyn Waldman on the broadcasts.

In Boston, both WBZ-FM Sports Hub and WEEI-FM dropped overall during the final ratings period of 2019, with Sports Hub holding a one-half ratings point overall lead. Both stations showed higher audiences since September, yet both dropped from the previous ratings period.

With the Patriots losing on Saturday (1/4), and opinions across the board on the future of Tom Brady, look for an increase in audience for both stations. It will be interesting to see if the Sports Hub gains more as the flagship station of the Patriots and its expanded coverage.


CHICAGO: Normally being just over six weeks from the start of MLB Spring Training games is not big news, but the new year continues a most curious scenario for Chicago area baseball viewers. The Cubs are scheduled to begin their new RSN, Marquee "sometime" during February. As of press time, only AT&T and its subsidiaries are the only providers to be signed up to air Marquee. Yet, there has been no indication as to cost to viewers, or if this channel will be "forced" to all appropriate subscribers or become an additional fee option.

Comcast is the largest provider serving the Chicago area, and has not signed up to carry this network. NBC Sports Chicago, which aired the majority of Cubs telecasts through last season, and is now planning to air every available White Sox telecast, is owned in part by Comcast, while the White Sox maintain a partial ownership interest.

It is no coincidence that NBC Sports Chicago programming has been flooded with Comcast's "anti-AT&T" commercials over the past few weeks. Across town, the White Sox have made several major personnel moves to improve the team, while the Cubs have done little with their roster in comparison.

One crucial difference from the Dodgers' TV situation in Los Angeles is that AT&T's service does not have geographic restrictions. In L.A., only about 30% of area residents can get Dodgers telecasts on their channel. If things stay as they are in the Chicago area, the majority of residents would be able to switch or add AT&T (or a subsidiary) to be able to watch the Cubs.

Of course, if the White Sox show improvement, and their telecasts are far more easily accessed, NBC Sports Chicago would do well with advertisers and possibly be lax to add Marquee. The battle for subscribers early in the season could go a long way toward determining an outcome of the upstart network.


Finally, we go back to December 29th when Kevin Harlan was calling the conclusion of the Chiefs' win during Week 17 with the #2 seed in the AFC playoff race at stake. With New England losing during their game's final few minutes, fans watching the Chiefs telecast were more interested in the Patriots result than their own (at the time, since the Chiefs were well ahead).

To his credit, Harlan had the Patriots game on his monitor and was literally calling the play-by-play of the "other" game to viewers while the Chiefs game remained on the screen. Some people were critical of Harlan, thinking he should "stick to the game he is there to call". The Broadcast Booth could not disagree more. What Harlan did was nothing short of brilliant broadcasting.

Harlan was, as a play-by-play professional is supposed to do, telling the fans exactly what they wanted to know at the time. Thanks to him, fans were able to stay up to the second on the Patriots game, while being able to see the Chiefs game at the same time. The crew didn't have to wait and do the "Let's go back to New York" bit after the facts.

Handling two games at the same time is a difficult task. Harlan handled it with ease and did the viewers a great service. We need more like him.