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French Open Ratings

16K views 193 replies 52 participants last post by  Jimmy Dragoon 
#1 ·
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/06 ... inal-flat/

French Open: Rain-Delayed Men’s Final Down From Last Year; Women’s Final Flat

Despite being interrupted due to rain, Sunday’s French Open Men’s Final earned solid numbers for NBC.

Before being rained out, the Rafael Nadal/Novak Djokovic French Open Men’s Final drew a 2.4 overnight rating on NBC Sunday morning — down 8% from Nadal/Federer last year (2.6), but up 50% from Nadal/Soderling in 2010 (1.6).

The complete telecast window on NBC earned a 2.0 overnight rating.

The 2.4 for Sunday’s match is tied as the second-highest for the French Open Men’s Final since Agassi/Medvedev in 1999 (4.0).

On Saturday, the Maria Sharapova/Sara Errani Women’s Final drew a 1.7 overnight, equaling both Na/Schiavone last year (1.7) and Schiavone/Stosur in 2010 (1.7).

The 1.7 is tied as the second-lowest for the French Open Men’s Final since at least 1998. Only the ’09 Kuzentsova/Safina final (1.4) drew lower numbers.
 
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#7 ·
I've said this in another thread. I'm not trying to bash Maria at all but her fans vastly overstate her popularity in the United States. The Williams sisters are certainly more controversial and therefore are less marketable to middle America than Maria is but many more people know them and will watch their matches than Maria's matches.
 
#10 ·
Also, it's sad seeing how women's tennis used to be more popular than men's tennis in 2002-2003, and I'm sure it also got better ratings from around '98-01 too. I miss the golden age. Women's tennis' popularity has fallen so much in the last five years or so.
 
#25 ·
http://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2012/06 ... inal-flat/

French Open: Rain-Delayed Men’s Final Down From Last Year; Women’s Final Flat

Despite being interrupted due to rain, Sunday’s French Open Men’s Final earned solid numbers for NBC.

Before being rained out, the Rafael Nadal/Novak Djokovic French Open Men’s Final drew a 2.4 overnight rating on NBC Sunday morning — down 8% from Nadal/Federer last year (2.6), but up 50% from Nadal/Soderling in 2010 (1.6).

The complete telecast window on NBC earned a 2.0 overnight rating.

The 2.4 for Sunday’s match is tied as the second-highest for the French Open Men’s Final since Agassi/Medvedev in 1999 (4.0).

On Saturday, the Maria Sharapova/Sara Errani Women’s Final drew a 1.7 overnight, equaling both Na/Schiavone last year (1.7) and Schiavone/Stosur in 2010 (1.7).

The 1.7 is tied as the second-lowest for the French Open Men’s Final since at least 1998. Only the ’09 Kuzentsova/Safina final (1.4) drew lower numbers.

:haha: So much for all of the recent posts proclaiming Sharapova to be greatest women's tennis icon ever, worshipped and beloved across the entire globe. :haha: :haha: :haha:

There were a few of us on the plethora of Sharapova-is-the-greatest-ever worship threads saying that she is not that well known in the U.S. and is therefore not a global icon, but we were repeatedly told that we were wrong.

I can't wait for the excuses. :lol: Did millions of televisions go out just before the match started? Or maybe it's just some big conspiracy that the television ratings firms are a part of just so that it doesn't appear that anyone is more popular in the U.S. than Serena and Venus? No, I think the excuse will be that people didn't watch it because they knew that Sharapova would dominate. Sorry, but I'm not buying that one. Anyone who is truly a big fan will watch the match no matter who the opponent is.

To be fair, I know that the vast majority of Maria's fans are not delusional, but the insane minority have sure been going over board with their posts and their claims lately.
 
#31 ·
As I said earlier, people are getting lost in the Williams/Sharapova fans pissing match but the real story isn't that Serena or Venus get better ratings than Sharapova in the U.S (that's to be expected). The frightening story for women's tennis in the U.S. is that Justine/Kim, two basically unknown players at the time in the U.S., got better ratings than the men's final that year and much better ratings than this year's final. This year, the men got significantly better ratings than the women.

The decline in the popularity of women's tennis in the U.S. (and I think probably around the world) is a serious problem that needs to be addressed and I'm not really sure what can be done.
 
#38 ·
I think that this is just an indication that the WTA, like any sport, needs stars to drive ratings in the U.S. For clarification, I mean a final between TWO stars (in most cases). Look at the rating for the all Belgian final in 2003 for instance. Stars are made by the media and via their own high level, consistant play. Sharapova is a star, as well as Serena,Kim C., and Azarenka is an emerging one.

Equally as impressive are the milestone numbers associated with the first-round upset of star Serena Williams on Tuesday, May 29. The match’s 1.02 rating was good for first place among all cable networks in Tennis Channel’s household coverage area and averaged 533,170 homes during the time period. Peaking at a 1.60 rating, the match generated more than one million viewers at its height, and is the highest-rated early round tournament play in network history. The Williams match is not the only pole propping up the network’s ratings canopy, however, as ratings in matches played by Maria Sharapova (0.95), Victoria Azarenka (0.84) and John Isner (0.68 – No. 2 in coverage area), pointed to sustained, weeklong viewer demand.
http://www.onthebaseline.com/2012/06/05/record-ratings-for-tennis-channel-french-open-coverage/
 
#46 ·
Well I'm not American, but I doubt Maria is a nobody, that said a lot of people do overstate her fame. But she has had a few stints on Letterman, Ellen and I'm sure she got a lot of coverage for Wimbledon and I'm not sure what her coverage for the career slam was like, but it was big over here. Ironically the Canon commercials were the only real U.S. thing she did, a lot of her endorsements were Asian based surprisingly. A lot of my friend who I wouldn't really talk to about tennis know her because she's 'fit' apparently, while just have many has said "that one who screams all the time" or "that one who one Wimbledon". It applies to everyone though, to my astonishment I've yet to meet someone who outright knows Henin, and even with the WS I get responses of "them black girls" or even if they know them they have to ask who's the 'big' and who's the 'skinny' one. It's hard for us as tennis fans to really grasp the players fame outside the sport, as we don't know everyone. But all fanbases like to overstate their fave's fame.
 
#52 ·
Well I'm not American, but I doubt Maria is a nobody, that said a lot of people do overstate her fame. But she has had a few stints on Letterman, Ellen and I'm sure she got a lot of coverage for Wimbledon and I'm not sure what her coverage for the career slam was like, but it was big over here. Ironically the Canon commercials were the only real U.S. thing she did, a lot of her endorsements were Asian based surprisingly. A lot of my friend who I wouldn't really talk to about tennis know her because she's 'fit' apparently, while just have many has said "that one who screams all the time" or "that one who one Wimbledon". It applies to everyone though, to my astonishment I've yet to meet someone who outright knows Henin, and even with the WS I get responses of "them black girls" or even if they know them they have to ask who's the 'big' and who's the 'skinny' one. It's hard for us as tennis fans to really grasp the players fame outside the sport, as we don't know everyone. But all fanbases like to overstate their fave's fame.
I watch a lot of ESPN, and I don't recall them ever mentioning that she won the career slam. They did show on the ticker that she won the final but never mentioned the career slam. Before the final, SportsCenter was periodically showing highlights from her SF against Kvitova, and mentioning that she would play Errani in the Final, without showing any highlights from the Errani-Stosur SF, so apparently they did think her SF was more worthy of highlights than the other SF. After the Final, they showed highlights of that periodically, but again, I don't recall them ever mentioning the career slam.

They showed highlights of the men's SFs and F much more frequently, and whenever there were rain delays, both ESPN and NBC chose to show reruns of the men's matches rather than show reruns of women's matches. One day, they showed reruns of both of the men's SFs twice. I don't have tennis channel, so I can't speak for what they did.
 
#49 ·
Lest you forget that even if tennis is the number 5, 6 sport in the United States, it's still the largest market by far, and it's viewing numbers even as a niche sport rival the rest of the world. That's why the American market is so coveted.

Tennis Channel opens itsself every year for free to several cable providers during the French Open. The potential viewing numbers alone for that period - when available as a niche channel to all, is extremely profitable for them.

As well - Venus has only added to Serena's legacy in recent years to be completely honest. The package of the sisters is a big sell, but more often than not, it's Serena who's the main attractor. I'd rate Venus below Maria and Serena as the top 3 players in the United States. Wozniacki was groomed as the successor to them, although Vika is climbing now.
 
#51 · (Edited)
ok, let's imagine Kvitova had reached the final , what ratings would have had the final Kvitova- Errani )))))

it's not Sharapova fault, becaue some of my friends were not watching as " the result was never in doubt" for them

WTA needs Sharapova-Azarenka, Sharapova-Serena finals to be competitive with ATP finals in which only top stars are taking part

By the way, The Clijsters/Wozniacki U.S. Open women’s final drew a mere 1.1 U.S. rating )))) and US Open was always more popular than Roland Garros in USA
 
#53 · (Edited)
In defense of the ratings, it was a superstar against a relative unkown, 2 non-american players (i know Sharapova is bascially American, but still), and people would've assumed that it would be a blow out. The ratings weren't horrible either. Nothing is going to come close for the ratings of 2 american sisters competing for the second time in a grand slam final. Poeple should just give up on that comparison.
 
#55 ·
What a dumbass thread opener... :split:
Of course, if these are US ratings the Williams final will be the most viewed, it's a nationalist reaction and clearly not an indication of popularity! Useless thread, only trying to bash Maria and yet still failing.
PS: the USA are not the world, so change at least the title
 
#56 ·
Some people are so ridiculous, I wonder if they are even capable of thinking with any logic at all.

Its like saying the NBA finals is more popular than the champions league final :tape::tape::tape::tape::tape:

Sure, on american tv the NBA finals will get a much higher rating. However worldwide there is NO comparison, it is not even close.
 
#57 ·
More a question than a remark: Are those ratings for tennis matches not influenced more by whatever else is going on at other channels than by whoever is playing? It's like, I'm sure that in Europe a respectable number of people were watching the Nadal/Djokovic match, but I bet that as soon as the European football cup started half (or more) of them switched channels and left the tennis for what it was.
 
#58 ·
They probably are influenced by whatever else is on, but, U.S. time, the finals started saturday morning for the womens and sunday morning for the mens, and if I recall correctly, the FO finals are generally played the same times/days every year. On weekends in the U.S., the morning shows pretty much include only political debate shows and cartoons, so I'm not sure how much that would affect viewership.
 
#63 ·
I never said she's not extremely popular across most of the planet. Have you forgotten the multiple threads on which you and others have been proclaiming her the biggest tennis icon ever, well-known and loved in EVERY COUNTRY on earth? I don't give a flying fuck if she is well known in most countries. That doesn't make her the biggest tennis icon ever in every country on the planet.


Big fucking deal, web searches spiked when she made the SF and the F. What a shock! :lol: Every other month she is no more popular than Nadal or Djokovich. Spikes on a graph do not in any way indicate a global icon status. Someone who is truly popular would have a high number of searches on a constant basis, not just a couple of spikes when their name is in the news because they just won something. If you go look at the last couple of years, searches for Wozniacki were as high as they were for Maria. Does that mean that Wozniacki is worshipped and beloved across the U.S.?
 
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