Registered: Apr 2011
Location: Canada
Posts: 77

Hi all,
Perhaps this has already been discussed, but I haven't found it.

I thought I read somewhere that the World curling was televised on NBC in the United States. Are there any reports of the overall viewership? I was wondering if Shuster's Olympic gold had stoked the interest in the US. I imagine it has had some positive impact, just wondering if there are any indications of how much. Thanks all.

GC

Last edited by GreatCanadian on 04-10-18 at 11:59AM

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Registered: Sep 2011
Location:
Posts: 1064

It's going to be very hard to say, because they were shown on two Cable ONly networks, NBCSN and The Olympic Channel, which do not have massive market penetration. NBCSN has much deeper reach than TOC, but even that is only something like 65% or so of the US, as I recall the lat time I saw the numbers.

Neilson doesn't release those numbers freely, unfortunately There are some Top X lists that are seen, but the ones I know of do not list the Olympic Channel on there.

I'm guessing numbers were up, but not massive..

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Registered: Apr 2016
Location: River Falls, WI, USA
Posts: 445

There were some prsss reports during the Olympics that the men’s gold medal match was watched live by about 1 million viewers despite it being on at 3 am and on cable/satellite. There were a couple replays of it later too, including one on main NBC, so more than just that saw it,

I’ve not seen any numbers for the world championships...my guess is they might have ticked up slightly from usual but nothing earth shattering,

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Registered: Apr 2011
Location: Canada
Posts: 77

Why 3 AM? I believe the game was played around 8 PM Pacific time?? Could be wrong about that, but it was somewhere close.

I kind of thought that the interest would be sky high. Although I'm Canadian, I think growth in the US would be tremendous for the sport globally.

GC

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Registered: Apr 2016
Location: River Falls, WI, USA
Posts: 445

I think the first replay was around then, but the live event was in the middle of the a.m. hours for North America.

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Registered: Sep 2011
Location:
Posts: 1064

The Gold medal game started at 1:00 AM Eastern Standard Time.

Shuster's 5 that all but ended it happened around 3:10 AM.

And even with that, as was said, the viewership for that game was massive, something like 2.5M viewers, on a Cable Network that doesn't get 100% market penetration, in the middle of the night, and that doesn't count the various clubs and other venues that held viewing parties.

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Registered: May 2014
Location: Joliet, IL
Posts: 629

Slowly but surely TV coverage has been improving in the US.

Three years ago I had to use work-arounds to watch the Gold Medal game of Men's Worlds because it was geo-blocked...NBCSN was showing it, albeit tape-delayed over 24 hours after the game would have ended. Not to mention edited down to a 2-hour timeslot. Otherwise I don't think they even showed a single game.

Flash forward to this year, where for Men's and Women's there was actual live coverage, often at least one game a day. Granted, as has been pointed out they were on channels that aren't very widely available...but not completely obscure either.

And as has been the case for several years, TSN "Season Of Champions" events have been streamable via ESPN3/WatchESPN. It would be awesome if they would broadcast it on one of the ESPN channels of course, but the streaming coverage is good.

I'd love to see a network pick up the rights to the GSOC. I know that we can buy the international streaming package in the US, but it would be great to see the games broadcast on a cable network or at least streamable without having to buy the package. Obviously such a move would indicate a commitment towards showing more curling.

Anyway, hopefully this trend of more live coverage will continue. The more people in the US are exposed to curling outside of the Olympics, the more likely they are to go out and play, that goes without saying.

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Registered: Oct 2002
Location: Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Posts: 1713

I hear ya bro.

I've started watching 20 years ago at a sportsbar in the USA that had an old K-Band satellite dish (fun times). Could only get CBC which meant only the finals.

Then came begging for VHS tapes. Then came the Canadian "grey market" sat-dish.

Now, thanks to the net, I can get so much content I no longer need the dish.

The net is the way to go.....bypass the "old world" distribution systems and seek a new dynamic.

These are GREAT times to be a USA curling fan!!!!

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