One of my favorite Twitter feeds is @SportsTVRatings. The feed and its corresponding website, which offers a daily dose of TV ratings minutiae, has a passionate following among sports media watchers.
Last month, Newsday’s Neil Best identified Robert Seidman as the writer behind the feed. Seidman has a history with TV ratings. Along with Bill Gorman, he founded the blog TV by the Numbers, which the two sold to Tribune Digital Ventures a few years ago. I asked Seidman last week why he opted to give up his anonymity.
“I never really had a good reason for being anonymous. It was never anything nefarious,” Seidman said.
“I thought a whole bunch of people knew. Sports Illustrated reporter Richard Deitsch knew early on. I told him. I thought Fox Sports executive Mike Mulvihill knew early on. He didn’t. I told him. The kicker for me was when Bill Gorman, who I ran TV by the Numbers with, didn’t know that I was behind the site.”
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Why were you anonymous in the first place?
SEIDMAN: When Bill and I did TV by the Numbers, people constantly mixed us up. It didn’t really matter who we were. We were the names associated with the site, but nobody really cared. I thought that if I can get any traction with Sports TV Ratings, it would be better if no name was attached to it because people don’t really care about that anyway.
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Is this a good business for you?
SEIDMAN: I started Sports TV Ratings right after we sold TV by the Numbers. I knew instantly that this isn’t going to make any money. So I started to think about what I want to do next. I moved out of the Bay Area to El Paso, Texas, to save money. I’m not hard pressed to figure anything out right now. I’m kind of interested to see, as a hobby, if I stick with Sports TV Ratings for five years, what happens.
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What’s the most popular topic you cover?
SEIDMAN: I am surprised by the interest in ESPN’s “First Take” ratings versus FS1’s “Undisputed.” Of anything I post, that’s what gets the most traffic.
— John Ourand
