No, not for Motegi.
Sports Media Watch is reporting that Versus pulled 972,000 viewers for Saturday's college football game between Florida State and Brigham Young. That's almost 1 million viewers... on Versus... without the benefit of 18 million DirecTV subscribers.
The game was no barnburner. The Seminoles crushed the Cougars, 54-28. And, much like last week's game between Texas and Wyoming, the FSU/BYU contest had ample competition from other college football match-ups throughout the United States.
Allow me to reiterate. Versus is perfectly capable of attracting an audience if it has a product that people want to watch. The present iteration of IndyCar racing does not qualify. At times it seems that IRL management is trying to make life difficult for its new cable television partner.
Quit blaming Versus and give U.S. customers what they want.
Roggespierre
In fairness, a quick note:
ReplyDeleteThe WEC is on the verge of being closed down. Its simply not profitable, and the demands of the headline fighters there are pushing Zuffa (who own both the WEC and UFC) to incorporate those fighters into their shows. Of course, their ratings are still better than the IRL for live events.
VirtualBalboa,
ReplyDeleteThank you for providing this news. I am not a fan of the MMA genre, so I have zero knowledge of its economics. That said, I think that anything that has an impact on Versus is relevant to the IRL.
My frustration with the league and its teams has to do with their presumption that the product is good, and that therefore the fact that people refuse to tune-in to watch it is the fault of the broadcast partner.
I continue to highlight Versus' successes because I want the IRL, its teams and its fans to know that Versus does draw respectable audiences for programs that people want to watch. I want IndyCar races to be among those programs. At present, they are not.
Thanks again for your valuable contributions.
Best Regards,
Roggespierre