Skating on TV or lack thereof

[vintagefreak]

I want to know why stations like ESPN program garbage like "Classic boxing" but rarely show figure skating events. I mean, come on! How many people actually watch stuff like that (or worse yet, classic basketball-guys in teeny tiny shorts and socks up to their knees!) I just can't believe more than say, 3 people watch those games (one of them is my husband :( ). Oh wait............the kicker is classic golf. Let's watch Arnie Palmer from 1975 because his pants are to die for!

You know those adds for AOL where the woman marches in on a meeting, baby in tow, and starts making requests? Don't you wish you could do that with the sports networks?

Anyone know the answer to this mystery? How could the ratings for classic bowling be better than current figure skating? HUH????????

[Debbie S]

You might get more responses if you posted this in the General Skating Discussions section.

[Mrs Redboots]

At least you occasionally get skating shown on your terrestrial channels. We get it on satellite/cable, sometimes, but the BBC only shows it during the Olympics. If then.

[TashaKat]

I agree with Annabel, the coverage in the UK is even worse, it is dire. Even satellite isn't that wonderful. I once remember taping about three hours worth of skating only they'd put SUMO WRESTLING on instead! I wasn't a happy bunny :(

[chimbu1984]

try looking for skating in hong kong! it's almost non existent!

[Thin-Ice]

The fees paid for classic boxing or 1975 golf are very low... so the stations/networks don't need very high ratings to cover the costs. But the costs to air skating are much higher and especially so, since it became so popular back in 1994. While viewership was high then, it has dropped off a lot since then and the costs are still high. (The governing bodies/promoters get to set the price to air the event) So when the ISU decided to charge more to cover Worlds/Grand Prix and USFS decided to increase the price for Nationals and other USFS events, they made more money in the short run.. but now they've made it difficult for the networks to cover those costs. The only way the networks make money is to sell commercial time.. and the rates are set depending on how many people watch the TV program.. fewer viewers=less revenue... less revenue+high costs=fewer programs on the air. Why do you think Worlds was on ESPN this last year?

If you really want to make them air skating, you need to start a letter-writing campaign to the ISU, USFS and the networks to prove there is support for skating programs on TV and it needs to be more than just one or two letters.. it needs to be hundreds so it appears there are lots of people willing to watch the commercials, which in essence finance the broadcast.

[Oracle]

I heard on the news a few weeks ago that Proctor & Gamble (largest corporation buying advertising space on TV) had recently commissioned a study to see if they were getting a good return on their TV advertising investments. It turned out that they were not so they are pulling back on buying TV advertising time & looking at other ways of advertising their products. The problem is the high cost of TV advertising today & lack of viewers buying the products to make it worthwhile. Consequently, the cheaper reality shows, old sporting events, popular reruns, etc. It's a consumer driven economy in the US & if the consumers aren't buying (which has nothing to do with viewing) then certain types of shows will be dropped or moved to cheaper cable channels.

[Thin-Ice]

Excellent point Oracle! The corporations do have to be wanting or at least willing to buy the ads that finance what the networks do. But the networks are the ones who figure out how much they are going to charge for those ads.. and those charges are all listed on "rate cards" that include how many people watch, as well as WHAT kinds of people are watching. Unfortunately for most skating fans, our demographic is not the most desireable. Most of the corporations want Men 18-35.. but are willing to settle for Men 25-49 seeing their commercials. That is not exactly the prototypical figure skating fan.

Recent research has shown Women 25-54 are the ones who have the most say over how a household's money is spent. That would bode well for skating programming.. but the corporations are still focused on the Men as viewers rather than the Women. And that's not likely to change until there is a lot more research to back up the researc cited above.. which could take months or years.. depending on when several companies decide they want to know that kind of thing. Traditionally the Young Men demographic has been considered the most important... so there has to be a reason for corporations (including networks) to believe something has changed, and then believe the new research.

(Yes, I work in TV and EVERYTHING you see on EVERY channel has been researched-to-death in terms of who is watching and what they like and don't like about it and why they watch one program over another. There are consultants who tell show producers like "Right now, your commercial breaks come at the wrong times to keep the viewers' interest... so your new format should make the commercials start 7-minutes and 30-seconds into your program and be finished 9 minutes and 15-seconds into that hour.")

But the networks do consider viewer reaction.. in fact, they generally figure for every one phone call received there are 10 more people who feel the same way; for every 1 signature on a petition there are about 25 more people who feel the same way.. but individual, non-form letters usually represent 100 viewers who agree.. and just didn't take the time to write.

[loveskating]

Well, maybe then write to public television? THye have broadcast skating of high quality before, like Paul Wylie's show.

[Isk8NYC]

I agree: ESPN Classic is NEVER used to show old figure skating competitions. It should be, just as they show "classic" baseball games during football season.



Here are the addresses for letters/e-mail to ESPN / ABC:

ESPN
ABC Sports
47 W. 66th St.
NY, NY 10023
e-mail: ABC Sports (http://espn.go.com/sitetools/s/contact/other.html)

Outside the US, send letters to:

ESPN International
ESPN Plaza
Bristol, CT 06010
e-mail: ESPN International (http://espn.go.com/sitetools/s/contact/international.html)

I wish I had contact names. I'm sure personally addressed letters would stand a better chance.

[Isk8NYC]

Lifetime Television
309 West 49th Street
New York, NY 10019

Lifetime targets that demographic of women 25-50. They produce and air profiles on high-level skaters that are more than fluff. For example, Vera Wang and Peggy Fleming have both been on their "Intimate Portrait" program.

Sometimes, they also show reruns of competitions, special shows, etc.

[galaxybounce]

Ya it's funny how they switched it over to espn becuase of the drop off in viewers. At least I managed to get most of the skating season taped and saw some of the short programs. THis year I figured that we got to see half as much skating on tv as last year. Mostly the short programs were cut plus a few other things that they showed last year.

Lifetime was fun becuase they would go in depth into some of the ice dance and pairs teams. It was fun to see them off ice and to see some of the up and commers. Also the junoir worlds were also good to see as well... it was really nice to see people other than the main ones we see all season.

Hopefully viewership will return but unfurtunetly we probably need a scandal to come up again like in ahhem 94....

I guess the more people that get into skating the better and then they will start to watch more on tv as well. I know plenty of people who skate that didn't even watch worlds!!! ugh and then they leave us to get our skating on tv cut in half lol

Ok last point everyone should have a vcr that watches tv and then you really can watch skating year round lol ... like me :)

[sarahyani]

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[7302005]

re: agree: ESPN Classic is NEVER used to show old figure skating competitions. It should be, just as they show "classic" baseball games during football season

I suspect that in part this has to do with the "cialis" and other ED drug companies are willing to pay big bucks - which means a predominantly male audience. :frus: (and is anyone else sick of these types of commericals :roll: ) And in part do the the beer commericals that abound with sporting events.

[LittleBitSk8er]

When I used the form for ESPN ABC Sports that was provided, I received an undeliverable mail response.

Try this one: comments@espn.go.com

It worked for me...