Speaking of VERSUS: Maybe VERSUS Will Start Devoting More Attention to Hockey After These Ratings
April 8, 2009 1 Comment
From Sports Media Watch via MVN.com:
If the numbers for Versus’ first IRL telecast are any indication, it may be a long ten years for the open wheel racing league.
According to Autoracing1.com, the IRL’s season opening Honda Grand Prix of St. Petersburg drew 233,000 viewers on Versus last Sunday, down 79% from 1.1 million viewers for last year’s season opener on ESPN2.
To put the 233,000 viewers in perspective, NHL telecasts on Versus averaged 311,000 viewers through January’s All-Star break.
So there you go, VERSUS. You decide to devote more coverage to hockey than to racing, and it backfires. You also have to hope that this doesn’t discourage IndyCar fans, most of whom were overwhelmingly positive about VERSUS’ coverage of the sport this weekend. Now, we hope IndyCar ratings improve, just because we dig open wheel racing, but VERSUS hopefully got itself a dose of reality today from these numbers. As Paulsen said, it’s going to be a looooooong ten years for IndyCar and VERSUS.
Maybe it is the tv channel…….