Prime Time Sports
What's causing the NFL ratings decline?
November 02 2017

Don Van Natta Jr. joins Bob McCown and John Shannon to weigh-in on the NFL ratings decline, and discuss how protests have hurt the league, other issues that may be affecting fan interest, and why some owners may not be happy with Roger Goodell.

Prime Time Sports
Is there just too much football available?
October 26 2017

Fred Gaudelli, Executive Producer of Sunday Night Football, joins Prime Time Sports to discuss whether there are 'too many football windows', the league's ratings, and how to better engage young fans.

Why should they care and why should we care?

Canadians watch the NFL as entertainment and that is it. It is not our league.

Just another one of those cases where they try and convince us to care about something by pretending we have a vested interest in it.

Good news for all CFL and MLS fans in Canada

Bob McCown signs multi-year deal to remain host of Prime Time Sports
Sportsnet Staff December 8, 2017

Bob McCown will remain on the airwaves with The Fan 590 after signing a multi-year contract.

A pioneer of Canadian all-sports radio, McCown was the original host of Prime Time Sports when the show first launched in 1989 and he remains, to this day, the most listened-to sports radio personality in the country.

“Bob has helped shape the all-sports radio landscape in Canada and very few, if any, can make that claim,” Scott Moore, President of Sportsnet & NHL Properties, said in a press release. “Bob’s body of work is unparalleled in this business and has been for decades. He’s as exceptional a broadcaster as you will ever find.”

Prime Time Sports remains the most listened-to sports talk radio program in the country and is No. 1 by a wide margin for average minute audience for males (12+), average minute audience for males 25-54 and share of audience for males 25-54.

“Bob is the most prominent and revered sports talk radio host in the country for good reason,” said Dave Cadeau, National Format Director for Sports Radio at Rogers Media. “He’s the single best interviewer in the industry. He elicits the most interesting responses from his guests and guides conversations in a way that is relevant to his audience. These are unique abilities and he has mastered them.”

During his illustrious career, Bob was recognized for his outstanding career and contributions to Canadian sports journalism at the Sports Media Canada Awards Ceremony in 2013, and was named North American Air Talent of the Year at the Rick Scott & Associates Sports Radio Conference in 2007. That same year he co-authored his first book, McCown’s Law: The 100 Greatest Hockey Arguments, which was a national bestseller.

When asked to comment on his contract extension, McCown insisted: “I would have quit but my wife won’t stop spending.”

I thought they were having Bob retire in 2018 that was being planned for 3 years when he signed in 2015. Bob is a joke he is stuck in the 1970's and doesn't know anything about modern sports at all.

Bob's been past his best-before-date for a few years now, at least. I don't see how CFL/MLS fans benefit from this any more than MLB/NHL/NFL...

Umm, sarcasm? And as a former listener he is definitely past his best before date but he still draws audiences, and amazingly, young audiences.

Dripping with irony

https://i.imgur.com/7KRZTJ5.png

I'm really interested to find out the TV ratings for the TFC game. Didn't they get like two million viewers for the Toronto/Montreal semi-final last year? I imagine the total will be near that.

1.4 (including RDS)

2016 Montreal/Toronto ECF:
Leg 1: 595K TSN/429K RDS (1M total)
Leg 2: 862K TSN/519K RDS (1.4M total)

2016 MLS Cup:
1.43M TSN/92K RDS (1.5M total)

Great news...he's been always carrying himself like he's got one foot out the door.

I enjoy listening to him on the way home and perfect for that time of day. One of the most knowledgeable sports guys out there. Very unique brand of sports talk. Interesting and non typical topics and not too heavy into the x/o's.

If I were to pay attention to some of the stuff Bob McCown often covers I'd rather listen to Dan Patrick or Jim Rome.

I don't need some guy at TSN to filter NCAA for me when I can listen to an American who is down there living the real deal.

MLS Cup ratings

One of the 60+ iconic championship events that live on TSN

I love that tagline that TSN is putting in all of its news releases.

Are there really 60+ iconic championship sporting events out there? That Canadians would be interested in? And that are broadcast on TSN?

Hard to believe.

Inquiring minds want to know what they are.

Yeah, I really don't see the appeal of Bob McCown. He's like that grumpy uncle who makes Christmas dinner slightly uncomfortable. When it comes to prime time sports radio in Toronto, I much prefer Overdrive on TSN. The three hosts have effortless chemistry and are so much more pleasant to listen to.

Those are great numbers... especially when there's only 1 Canadian team playing, and the fact that Toronto FC can't draw as many fans from Vancouver and Montreal since they have their own teams (unlike the Jays and Raptors).

They are indeed good numbers and it seems as if we've found the ceiling, at least for now, for the MLS on TSN. Last year's second leg between TFC/Impact combined for 1.4M, last year's MLS Cup was 1.5M, and this year's was 1.3M.

To put these into perspective (average viewers):

2016 Grey Cup, 3.9M;
2016 EURO Final, 2.3M;
2016 IIHF World Juniors (Canada's five games) 2.1M;
2016 NBA Playoffs, Raptors/Cavs 1.8M (record);
2016 Wimbledon Final, Raonic/Murray 1.6M (record);
2016 IIHF World Championships Gold Medal Game 1.56M (record);
2016 NBA Finals, Game 7 (GS/CLE) 1.2M;
2016 Queen's Plate 311K;

Numbers courtesy of Bell.

Couple more figures from the Bell press release:

"Toronto FC’s strong performance helped make TSN the most-watched network of the day on Saturday, and concluded a thrilling MLS season that saw an increase of 25% overall viewership for MLS in Canada compared to last season. The 2017 season also saw double-digit growth in the key A18-34 (+40%) and A25-54 (+28%) demos over 2016. A total of 11 million Canadians, or 30% of the population, saw some part of the MLS season this year."

Not a bad list