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PBA Television Ratings: 2005 to 2010 Including TOC Ratings

Posted: January 28th, 2011, 2:49 am
by jbungard
PBA Television Ratings:

(This information was obtained from the Albany, New York Times-Union)

"The ABC telecast of the PBA’s “Tournament of Champions” final produced a 0.8 Nielsen household rating, representing 871,000 households and 1.1 million viewers."

"The rating, while slightly higher than the tour’s ESPN average the past two years, still has to come as a disappointment to the PBA, which heavily promoted the telecast."

"Apparently the telecast wasn’t promoted enough, because a number of people I spoke to either forgot about the telecast or weren’t aware that it was airing on a Saturday."

Here are the ESPN number for the PBA the past five years:

Season Rtg Households Viewers
2009-10 0.6 644,000 783,000
2008-09 0.7 749,000 912,000
2007-08 0.8 757,000 918,000
2006-07 0.8 710,000 871,000
2005-06 0.8 698,000 901,000

Re: PBA Television Ratings: 2005 to 2010 Including TOC Ratin

Posted: January 28th, 2011, 2:57 am
by Beef STL
Honestly, really nothing surprising there...

Re: PBA Television Ratings: 2005 to 2010 Including TOC Ratin

Posted: January 28th, 2011, 3:51 am
by blueraider86
I know many cities just won't show it. For years Nashville's ABC affiliate in the 1980's and 1990's refused to show it. The Program Director at WKRN 2 said she hated bowling and instead she showed an old movie during the time slot. I remember back in the 1990's local proprietors showed up at her office with their check books open to actually pay for the show and she refused. I think she was like Jim Rome and thinks bowlers are just a bunch of fat drunks. She seemed to be overly religious and bowling to her must have been immoral.

BR

Re: PBA Television Ratings: 2005 to 2010 Including TOC Ratin

Posted: February 7th, 2011, 10:56 pm
by SpaceCadet
I don't think ABC/ESPN/PBA should be disappointed at all. They won an increase in audience size, and that comes in a day and age in which there are hundreds of cable channels to choose from. I'm a broadcaster, and while the PBA on ABC is a lot less prominent than it was in the old days of Schenkel and Burton, it's still a viable sport for TV.

I'm really hoping CBS will follow up on the 'one ball and you're out!' event it did a couple of years ago. (I'm getting old. I can't remember the name, but it was good TV!)

Re: PBA Television Ratings: 2005 to 2010 Including TOC Ratin

Posted: February 8th, 2011, 7:00 am
by Lonewolf300800
I think you are referring to the "Clash of Champions" event.


SpaceCadet wrote:I'm really hoping CBS will follow up on the 'one ball and you're out!' event it did a couple of years ago. (I'm getting old. I can't remember the name, but it was good TV!)

Re: PBA Television Ratings: 2005 to 2010 Including TOC Ratin

Posted: February 8th, 2011, 11:33 pm
by Joe Falco
Advertising the event and getting viewers are all important parts of keeping bowling going .. agreed! More important is keeping bowlers interested in becoming Pros! There have been some new faces winning recently .. but .. I think we have to do more with PBA prize funds! It blows my mind when I watch TV PBA and see commercials for things outside of bowling! Why isn't the BIG BOWLING BALL companies sponsoring the PBA TV shows? You would think they have the most to gain for a successful PBA!

Re: PBA Television Ratings: 2005 to 2010 Including TOC Ratin

Posted: February 9th, 2011, 1:15 am
by kellytehuna
If the PBA was already charging you around $250K per year just for your equipment to be used on tour, would you want to pay even MORE to sponsor any events? In my opinion, the PBA is shafting the ball companies and they get NOTHING out of it. Especially if their bowlers don't make it to the show!

Re: PBA Television Ratings: 2005 to 2010 Including TOC Ratin

Posted: February 9th, 2011, 1:21 am
by Joe Falco
Excellent point! Thanks!

Re: PBA Television Ratings: 2005 to 2010 Including TOC Ratin

Posted: February 10th, 2011, 7:04 pm
by kidlost2000
From a company perspective you would do better to air commercials during the telecast then to go for PBA sponsorship.

Your guaranteed air time for your product every show with a lower cost then the sponsor route.

In reference to the show thats biggest promotion was "hey there is no football this weekend" I would say it did not live up to the hype. Many stations carried/have contracts for college basketball which aired in place of the event.

Glad they gave Nelson Burton a few seconds of air time. I'd rather have him and Marshall Holman any time over the current TV personalities. (not an old person perspective since I'm 29 and not 55+) The current "personalities" are ehh at best.

I like watching the older telecast online where you could see the different bowling alleys they bowled in every week vs now making every bowling center look the same with the GIANT SCOREBOARD and all of the other PBA JUNK that covers the ball return, stands, and ect.

Bowling is a niche sport, and the TV ratings reflect that. Many of the bowlers I talk with who love bowling have stopped wacthing bowling because it is so bad on TV.

If bowlers can't watch your product, others will not be interested either.

Re: PBA Television Ratings: 2005 to 2010 Including TOC Ratin

Posted: February 10th, 2011, 10:20 pm
by kidlost2000
Something else to consider is tour earnings and number of tournaments for your dollar of sponsership. This year there are 13 tournaments on the PBA tour.(not counting the celeb tournament)

9 of the 13 are in one place. (NV) That means there are a lot of cities that use to host tournaments over the years that no longer do. Below are links for tour earnings by season and where it has peaked and where it has fallen back off. Also look at the number of tournaments bowled.

http://bowling.about.com/od/protoursbow ... 9-1985.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://bowling.about.com/od/protoursbow ... 6-2010.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;