[Imalaycle]

U.S. Open women's final no ratings hit

Relegated to cable and lacking any recognizable stars beyond tennis circles, the women's final of the U.S. Open was a bust in the ratings.

The Clijsters/Wozniacki U.S. Open women's final drew a mere 1.1 U.S. rating and 1.8 million viewers on ESPN2 Sunday night, down 67% in ratings and 62% in viewers from a 3.3 and 4.9 million for last year's S. Williams/Jankovic final, which aired on CBS.

This marks the lowest rated U.S. Open women's final since at least 1996 -- 50% below the previous 13-year low of 2.2 for Kuznetsova/Dementieva in '04.

Sunday's women's final was far less of a draw than the Clijsters/S. Williams semifinal the previous night. That match, which aired on CBS, drew a 2.1/4 final rating and 3.2 million viewers.

Source: ESPN

http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com...tings-hit.html

[Imalaycle]

Meanwhile, Monday's Del Potro/Federer men's final drew a 2.3/5 and 3.4 million -- up 35% in ratings from last year's 1.7/4 for Federer/Murray.

The two championship matches averaged a mere 1.7 rating, down 32% from a 2.5 last year, and the fourth straight year of declines. Since '99, the average rating for the championship matches of the U.S. Open has declined by 73% (6.3 to 1.7).

http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com...bers-game.html

[WournGona]

I'll try to refrain from my semi-regular ratings rants, and simply state that it would be awful boring if the NY Yankees were in every World Series, the Dallas Cowboys in every SuperBowl, the LA Lakers in every NBA championship, and Tiger at the top of every leaderboard.

[Imalaycle]

I'll try to refrain from my semi-regular ratings rants, and simply state that it would be awful boring if the NY Yankees were in every World Series, the Dallas Cowboys in every SuperBowl, the LA Lakers in every NBA championship, and Tiger at the top of every leaderboard.

No argument from me BUT the WTA has done a lousy job promoting the TOUR as a whole. Unfortunately coverage of the sport is related to ratings and right now there is little if any coverage of the WTA anywhere. They merged with the ATP to make TennisTV but while the ATP offers multiple court coverage giving fans a chance to see players they may have heard about but not seen the WTA sticks to center court coverage with no chance to see anyone new. For example it would've been nice to see Chang Kai-chen play today not because she was going to win but because she's interesting right now.

They can talk about them all they want but there are only two ratings draws in the WTA.

[CicyHannyCeli]

No argument from me BUT the WTA has done a lousy job promoting the TOUR as a whole. Unfortunately coverage of the sport is related to ratings and right now there is little if any coverage of the WTA anywhere. They merged with the ATP to make TennisTV but while the ATP offers multiple court coverage giving fans a chance to see players they may have heard about but not seen the WTA sticks to center court coverage with no chance to see anyone new. For example it would've been nice to see Chang Kai-chen play today not because she was going to win but because she's interesting right now.

They can talk about them all they want but there are only two ratings draws in the WTA.

Could the names be Serena and Venus? If so, how about Maria? No surprise that the WTA dipped due to Kim winning the semifinal match against Serena.

[Imalaycle]

Could the names be Serena and Venus? If so, how about Maria? No surprise that the WTA dipped due to Kim winning the semifinal match against Serena.

Patrick there's a chart attached to the second link that tells the whole story. I don't know how to post it here.

[WournGona]

They can talk about them all they want but there are only two ratings draws in the WTA.

There are two ratings draws in the WTA for U.S. television, Ti. And actually, I would not be surprised if Melanie would draw fairly decent as well.

I wonder how the ratings looked in Europe. My guess is, Kim (and Caro) play far better in a European marketplace than they do here in the States.

[CicyHannyCeli]

Patrick there's a chart attached to the second link that tells the whole story. I don't know how to post it here.

Thanks. Since Serena/Venus in 2002, 2.5 is the highest rating except 2008 for the WTA.

[Imalaycle]

There are two ratings draws in the WTA for U.S. television, Ti. And actually, I would not be surprised if Melanie would draw fairly decent as well.

I wonder how the ratings looked in Europe. My guess is, Kim (and Caro) play far better in a European marketplace than they do here in the States.

I was just reading that the ratings at Wimbledon and Australia reflect the ones in the States but I haven't seen a link to prove that.

[enurneAcourdy]

Why are they even comparing espn2 ratings to cbs?

[allvideO]

There are two ratings draws in the WTA for U.S. television, Ti. And actually, I would not be surprised if Melanie would draw fairly decent as well.

I wonder how the ratings looked in Europe. My guess is, Kim (and Caro) play far better in a European marketplace than they do here in the States.

Looking at that chart, you can agrue that Federer is not a rating draw either.

[carfAball]

Why are they even comparing espn2 ratings to cbs?

Yeah, that's not a fair comparison at all.

[Automobill]

I was just reading that the ratings at Wimbledon and Australia reflect the ones in the States but I haven't seen a link to prove that.

How about ratings in Belgium and Denmark? That would be a more fair comparison... Did higher % of Belgians watched Kim this year than the percentage of Americans who watched Serena last year? Or was it the other way around?

[urbalatte]

How about ratings in Belgium and Denmark? That would be a more fair comparison... Did higher % of Belgians watched Kim this year than the percentage of Americans who watched Serena last year? Or was it the other way around?

Combine that with the fact that CBS usually draws far more audience and we have fairly reasonable numbers.

As far as men's final vs last year's, well this year they played 5 sets, so I guess more people tuned in during this match compared to relatively short 3 setter.

btw, do we all know how these ratings work?