Tony what does this say?
NEW YORK -
The YES Network finished the 2010 broadcast year* as the most-watched regional sports network (RSN) in the country for the eighth straight year.
YES was the most-watched RSN in the country in Total Day (Monday-Sunday/6a- 2a) for the eighth consecutive year,
and was the most-watched RSN nationwide in Primetime (Monday-Sunday/7p-11p) for the seventh time in eight years.
I read your post. I understood your post. I read the article and understood the article. I understood and quoted the article in my post. Yes. In absolute raw numbers, YES is the most watched network. This is because is has, by far the most TV households in its area as compared to any other sports network. Had you read my post thoroughly and understood what I wrote, you would have seen I agreed with you and the article about the number of people who watch this channel. Then I continued to show how, by ratings numbers, which is what matters to advertisers, it is not the #1 network by percentage of the market. It has a smaller piece of a larger pie. Philly has a larger piece of a pie that less than half the size of NY. Please understand that.
Sugarcoat it all you want, Premium movie channels don't bring in ratings like RSN's, Locals, and National Networks do!
I also never said anything about any other channel's ratings. I did not add sugar to anything. I merely pointed out a hard numbers fact. In New York 99,991.4 TV households out of every 100,000 are NOT watching YES on an average night.
Now if you want to compare audience--which is difficult since HBO doesn't release their numbers:
HBO True Blood season 3 premier had approx 235,000 households in the NYC market. (3.5 million (nationally) x 6.495% (percentage of NY relative to US)
HBO Sopranos average audience in NYC approx 500,000 households.
Science Channel - An Idiot Abroad averages 450,000 households in NYC - (I am sorry to report)
A&E - Stephen Segal Law Man averaged 250,000 households in the NYC market
Fox News - O'Rielly Factor averages 475,000 NYC Households.
MTV Jersey Shore had approx 555000 households in the NYC market
Comedy Central - South Park average 300,000 households in NYC -highest ever 450,000
Highest EVER YES rating claimed 533,000 VIEWERS (not households) for a Yankees/Mets game. Now I am not sure if the writer of the press release was using viewers and households interchangeably, but this is a common trick to inflate numbers. Multiply households by 2.4 (average viewers per household) and it gives you the appearance of having a higher rating than you really do. But let's say that 533,000 is the number of households for the highest EVER rated YES Yankees broadcast. You can see that movie channels and even other basic channels do draw sizable audiences.
Again READ THIS.... I AM NOT SAYING YES IS NOT A POPULAR NETWORK. I am saying the impact of losing that network is overstated by rabid sports fans!
Dish thinks customers want more premium movie channels, well the numbers don't lie, NO THEY DON'T! They want Sports!
YOU want sports. You are doing what "everyone" does. If I don't watch it, "no one" does. If I watch it. "Everyone" does.
Perspective. Perspective.
And this thread is not about Dish. It's about DirecTV having an issue with the cost of the channel relative to the income and customers it will bring. Dish already made that decision. Now it's DirecTV's turn.