Raps season opener gets terrible ratings (54,000 viewers)

[mugmug]

Is Seattle still looking for a team?

[Badonkadonk]

I'm not subscribing to SN1 or TSN2. Screw the cable companies. I'm looking for ways to CUT the cord, not add to my cable bill.

If they want to bury games on obscure channels, so be it. I'm not going to watch.

[Dr Positivity]

The Raptors are heading in a dangerous direction. Just because fan enthusiasm was once strong doesn't mean it will be forever. Look at teams like Atlanta and Sacramento where long playoff droughts and irrelevance eroded the enthusiasm for the team. The team was lucky with Vince to establish the market in a hockey driven country but you can't just have a 8 year playoff drought or w/e if that's how long this goes without suffering

[onetwothree]

ITS BECAUSE OF TSN2.

stop saying its depressing. Those ratings would have been higher than the Argos game for sure. Maybe around the Jays range if it was on TSN.

And hockey, that ish is on CBC!

[PaulieWal]

I will try to give the perspective of early 20s guys here. While the number is abysmal and will probably bounce back to the average when the game isn't going against World Series and the Leafs directly but there are a variety of factors at work here which need to be discussed:

Firstly, I have said this in another thread but I will say it again. The Raptors and NBA as a whole need to do more to promote the game here. I am saying this in the terms of promoting the game on TV. Currently NBA TV Canada is nothing more than glorified Raptors TV with low-cost programming that I doubt many people watch. For the casual fan, that programming is garbage. For example, Game Time which is usually shown around 10 or 11 or later when there are late West Coast games is shown at 2 or 3 am here. For the casual fan, you have to increase his interest in the NBA as a whole to draw him more to Raps games in Canada. Furthermore, many many times, the national marquee games which are on NBA TV are not even shown on NBA TV Canada. NBA TV has good programming and that covers the entire league. For the casual fan or even a hardcore raps fan, there is no good NBA coverage on TV in Canada. If people remember, even the Raps preview premiered at 1:30 am in Canada. Unless, NBA TV Canada actually invests into the channel and tries to grow the game with good programming, you can expect this. Ironically, MLSE owns NBA TV Canada as well. I don't understand how they don't see the connection.

Secondly, the Raps suck. Flat out, there is no way around it. People can be optimistic all they want about this year's Raps but the reality is this is a team that has been in the doldrums the last few years. Given the fact that the Leafs are and probably will remain the premiere draw in the GTA for the foreseeable future, this team will only draw attention with a good product. Thankfully, MLSE is not going to have the luxury of putting two bad teams on the floor and still drawing viewers (although the Leafs do appear to be headed in the right direction). This team is hard to watch and I got so bored watching today's game. I am glad they won but there is not even one player on the team I would tune in to watch (maybe except JV).

Thirdly, and this was mentioned by many people, Raps games are usually on TSN2 or SportsNet 1 often. I think this will be one of the correction measures of MLSE since they own the team, the channels, and the cable services, I would expect more Raps game on basic cable channels.

I say all of this as someone who is an avid NBA fan and will watch my fair share of games everyday (streaming them online). I have a few friends who are casual fans and they do know more about Miami/Chicago/LA than they do about the Raps. They also mention how Sportscenter here rarely shows any NBA coverage or analysis. They have also noted a lack of quality NBA programming on NBA TV and frankly they are not interested in watching 10 reruns of Open Gym or Raptors Today when the team isn't even good. I swear you will draw more interest from the casual fan if you drum up more interest in the NBA overall. I really think this is where the NBA and MLSE need to overhaul NBA TV Canada. If MLSE/NBA continue to treat NBA coverage like this in Canada, these will be the results.

Anyway, it's time for the Raps to get a superstar either via a tank or trade or free agency. Let's make it happen.

[G R E Y]

How many people are subscribed to TSN2? These guys need to put it in the main channels
That's another problem, there is no consistency in the scheduling so people don't know when and where to watch. It would make sense to simplify it by having one channel hold it for one year(SN) then the other channel hold the rights the second year(TSN). Kapiche? They can even let Coin Toss Ross do the coin flip.

According to this article, TSN2 has 6.3 million subscribers: http://sportsbusinesscanada.com/amazing ... nada-tsn2/

But is TSN2 part of a package or an individual channel people can choose? How many people have TSN by comparison?

People say Raps suck so they're bumped to TSN2, but if they were on TSN they'd get better ratings. Curling has the ratings it does, but it's a niche sport. Raps have way more potential in terms of generating huge ratings.

I think we even have TSN2, but I never watch it as often someone is watching something else on TV so I stream games. There are surely anomalies like this that slip through the stats, but the low numbers cannot only be because Raps suck. I'm not convinced that even if they were winning that the ratings of their games on TSN2 would be the same as on TSN.

[Geddy]

I didn't mind those Sunday games on CBC that one year. At least they managed to get on a channel that everyone has access to.

[Raps in 4]

I'm not subscribing to SN1 or TSN2. Screw the cable companies. I'm looking for ways to CUT the cord, not add to my cable bill.

If they want to bury games on obscure channels, so be it. I'm not going to watch.

Switch to Vmedia or Zazeen. You get all the same channels as with Bhell/Robbers but at half the price.

[bananaman]

I refuse to buy TSN2 since it is useless outside of Raps games and my cable bill is already high enough. I wish they weren't relegated to the crappy 2nd tier channels. Pretty soon the Raps are going to be on Sportnet 360 lol...

[SFour]

I didn't mind those Sunday games on CBC that one year. At least they managed to get on a channel that everyone has access to.

They were early too which is a nice change.

[duppyy]

I'd like to see the ratings if they aired it online. Too bad that will never happen.

I watched all the jays game this season online cause it was more convenient to watch on my computer than TV.

[Morris_Shatford]

Yeah that is brutal, but the game was on TSN2.
Whereas some of the other teams listed had their opener on a channel most folks have.

I would be interested in knowing how many people actually have TSN2 nationally.

[Anatomize]

That's the real number of viewers for the past several years, people are unaware that Colangelo purchased a million television sets around Toronto and turned them on simultaneously before every Raps game, he's the king of ratings.

[LittleOzzy]

Those numbers are really terrible, Toronto FC pulls in better numbers in the city now.

I wouldn't blame being on TSN2 until we see some more numbers from this week. If this continues expect some major changes.

[kingkao]

TSN2 just kills it. I've gotten so use to streaming online and sometimes just going out and catching it. F- the cable companies.

[LittleOzzy]

350,000 last opener according to Eric Smith, so that is a major drop.

Though they were up against the World Series.

[Don_Draper]

no one I know has TSN2.

Go fck yourselves mr. Bell and Rogers.

[theonlyeastcoastrapsfan]

I know one thing teams with 54,000 should try and keep their players from bad mouthing sponsors, like Primo. They're luck they have any.

[disoblige]

Who wants to watch the 2013 boston celtics vs the raptors on tsn2.......

[Natural11]

TSN2 is probably a big factor. but to be honest I wouldn't have tuned in regardless. I'm tired of watching the Raptors tank every year and hoping for a miracle pick. Last time we pulled that off we got 6 years of Bargs for our efforts.