Paid Members tiger_rick Posted September 14, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted September 14, 2016 The argument that only wrestling fans are bothered about ratings is fucking stupid. Big fans of all shows stateside are concerned with ratings because if they're not good, something you like is getting canned. Â That's where my interest in Raw ratings comes from. Not only do they give a indication of whether something's successful but when they're consistently low, they give an indication that things aren't working. And from a fan's perspective, I'm interested to know if that's going to lead to big changes and speculate what they may be. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FUM Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 Ratings annoy me because they don't include people who recorded or watched something On Demand which I'd say about half a viewing audience could now come from these days. Â Especially if someone is watching their favourite NFL team, they're more likely to record RAW and watch it later. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ambulance Chaser Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 (edited) Of course it matters, it's very important. TV rights is one of the big 3 revenue drivers for the company, just purely from that point of view how can you say it does not matter, that is the WWE narrative that people like fucking Road Dogg or JBL or Adam Pearce want you to believe on twitter when they deliver a 1.8 rating. It's bollocks, you can bet your bottom dollar it'd matter if there was an upswing and they went the other way.  In just over 2 years they renegotiate with NBC, taking to the table tumbling ratings and viewers tuning out by the hundreds of thousands, as well as not being able to hold viewership throughout the 3 hour show, all these questions are going to be thrown at WWE and what will the response be? So when NBC offer X amount less in TV money in 2 years of course it's bad, the last time they did a TV deal in 2014 the 3 years leading up to that they averaged 3.21 in 2011, 3.0 in 2012 and 3.01 in 2013, what will they be able to offer this time around, I reckon this fall will see an all time low rating, last year was flirting around that mark and with fewer stars on Raw and absolutely senseless booking including no clear fucking babyface on the flagship show it's a lock in for me that we see 1.5 or something.  WWE pushed the product as "DVR Proof" and must see live TV, essentially comparing it to sports programming, the NFL draw 15-20 million viewers, Baseball is a lot higher.  Also, I don't buy the streaming or on demand argument, the Hulu deal existed 2 years ago, Youtube existed 2 years ao, as did Facebook, Instagram and any other social media outlet, the product is driving fans away it's as simple as that. Edited September 14, 2016 by Ambulance Chaser Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Pitcos Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 Ratings annoy me because they don't include people who recorded or watched something On Demand  Nor should they. Viewing figures for broadcasts without the adverts (or where the adverts are skippable) mean pretty much fuck all to advertisers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Benno Posted September 14, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted September 14, 2016 (edited) I never hear fans of any other tv show discussing the ratings of them. It's an odd hangover from Monday not wars thats no longer relevant. You get fans of soaps who are interested in who's shagging who, or who's contract is up, but never breaking it down to how many people switch over when Robbie gave wellard a bathWrestling, as much as it is a TV show, is about promoting. It's a business where fake matches and storylines are created and promoted with the goal being drawing money, which in this day and age is primarily two things, TV revenue and Network Subs. You'd be better comparing it to Boxing or MMA where PPV numbers are routinely a huge topic of conversation. Â If you're only interested in the surface level "who is shagging who" within the TV narrative, that's fine too - but this board would probably cease to exist if that's all there was to talk about. Â Ratings annoy me because they don't include people who recorded or watched something On Demand which I'd say about half a viewing audience could now come from these days. Â Â Those numbers are there (the live figures even include upto 3 hours DVR/time shift viewing) but they are admittedly hard to find. As an average, each hour of Raw tends to do numbers in the 300,000's as DVR views by the end of the week. So it's hardly half. Â Source: http://www.pwtorch.com/site/dvrtable/#KfSi42HbygzHYFRP.99 Â I don't disagree entirely though, the rating system is increasingly outdated - you can probably even factor in Youtube views, individual segments can do from a couple of thousand to a Million views - although those numbers are worldwide. Â The likes of Watchwrestling probably factor in too. Raw can do a few hundred thousand clicks just on there some weeks. Edited September 14, 2016 by Benno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Briefcase Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 What about the Smackdown ratings? Have they gone up at all since its gone to Smackdown Live?  It might not be as bad if Smackdown ratings were higher and you took the ratings as a collective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted September 14, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted September 14, 2016 What about the Smackdown ratings? Have they gone up at all since its gone to Smackdown Live? Yes, Shane McMahon said so on the PPV! Â They're irrelevant though. Look at the graph. Raw's fallen massively all year and the numbers were only average to start with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Benno Posted September 14, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted September 14, 2016 (edited) Smackdown certainly was fairing better (until a low rating last week) so that's an argument in favour of the split. It's possible that Smackdown could even win this week. They do tend to mirror each other though. Here's a lovely graph as of 2 weeks ago. Â Â Â https://twitter.com/adecorativedrop/status/771347828442562560 Â And here's their usual difference in ratings as a percentage. The draft was 19th July and there's a clear narrowing of the gap. Â https://twitter.com/adecorativedrop/status/771354154509959168 Â Â Â My take on it is the brand split gave them a short term boost in interest but in the medium term the weaker rosters are going to hurt them. Long term you'd think they'd be able to use the time to make new stars but I don't think anyone would bet on it. Â Overall though, the problem probably is just there's such a thing as too much fucking wrestling. Edited September 14, 2016 by Benno Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wrasslin Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 I'd imagine up against Monday night football there's a good chance that Smackdown will be the higher rated show during NFL season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 The two spikes in ratings on that graph come after the Royal Rumble and Weestlemania. The rest of the year appears to be made up of people who watch out of habit more than anything else Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harlow2 Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 Below is the audience for RAW against the Monday Night Football season-opener for every year since 2012, when the show went to three hours. The number in parenthesis indicates the increase or decline from the prior year. The fall from 2015 to 2016 was the largest yet: 2012: 4.136 million viewers2013: 3.886 million viewers (-6%)2014: 3.987 million viewers (+2.6%)2015: 3.397 million viewers (-14.8%)2016: 2.69 million viewers (-20.81%) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Gaffer Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 In addition to all the other arguments people have given about why ratings are worthy for discussion wrestling is also much, much more flexible and unpredictable in it's creative direction than anything else out there. Only soaps come close. Unlike Game Of Thrones or the Walking Dead which will take a full season and production cycle to distil what aspects of the writing - if any - affected the ratings you're talking about a medium which can more or less change it's main character and uproot it's entire narrative in 7 days if it wants to. With social media it can do some of it in 7 minutes. Â These kind of changes can be caused by ratings and can have fallout in the form of ratings, causing even more change which as fans we want to follow and understand. Admittedly it is less dynamic these days and the WWE sort of just chugs along for the most part but still. Â Bizarre to question why people give a shit about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted September 14, 2016 Share Posted September 14, 2016 Still nothing in any of that that makes me care too much about what the shows do. One Way or another wwe will always be on tv, not an aspect of the company I measure into my enjoyment of a show. Each to their own though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Sergio Mendacious Posted September 14, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted September 14, 2016 That's a gorgeous graph, Benno. Love a good graph. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Big Benny HG Posted September 14, 2016 Paid Members Share Posted September 14, 2016 Graph?! I thought it was a plan for a new haircut. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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