Media Notes
The race segment of the Belmont Stakes earned a 9.0 final Nielsen rating (14.6 million viewers) on ABC from 6:15-7:11pm last Saturday, which was up from a 3.7 rating last year, which ran from 6:15-7:01pm, but down from a 13.1 rating (21.9 million viewers) in '04 on NBC, when Smarty Jones also lost out on his Triple Crown bid. From 5:31-7:11pm, ABC earned an 8.2 rating (13.1 million viewers), up 156.3.% from a 3.2 rating (4.9 million viewers) last year, but down 27.4% from an 11.3 rating (18.3 million viewers) on NBC in '04. There have now been seven unsuccessful Triple Crown bids since the '97 Belmont. The charts below show that for the more recent Belmont Stakes which had a Triple Crown on the line, ratings and viewership went up from race to race, while this year's ratings and viewership declined (THE DAILY).
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BELMONT STAKES: RACE PORTION TREND
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|
YR
|
NET
|
TIME
|
RATING
|
VIEWERS
|
|
'08
|
ABC
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6:15-7:11pm
|
9.0
|
14.6 million
|
|
'04
|
NBC
|
6:18-7:19pm
|
13.1
|
21.9 million
|
|
'03
|
NBC
|
6:00-7:00pm
|
10.7
|
15.7 million
|
|
'02
|
NBC
|
5:30-6:44pm
|
8.4
|
12.4 million
|
|
'99
|
ABC
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
6.9
|
9.3 million
|
|
'98
|
ABC
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
6.7
|
9.1 million
|
|
'97
|
ABC
|
5:00-6:00pm
|
6.1
|
8.2 million
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BELMONT STAKES: TOTAL PROGRAM TREND
|
|
YR
|
NET
|
TIME
|
RATING
|
VIEWERS
|
|
'08
|
ABC
|
5:31-7:11pm
|
8.2
|
13.1 million
|
|
'04
|
NBC
|
5:30-7:19pm
|
11.3
|
18.3 million
|
|
'03
|
NBC
|
5:30-7:00pm
|
9.5
|
13.8 million
|
|
'02
|
NBC
|
5:00-6:44pm
|
7.6
|
11.0 million
|
|
'99
|
ABC
|
4:30-6:00pm
|
6.0
|
7.9 million
|
|
'98
|
ABC
|
4:30-6:00pm
|
5.9
|
8.0 million
|
|
'97
|
ABC
|
4:30-6:00pm
|
5.3
|
7.1 million
|
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Bombardier Learjet 550k Highest-Rated,
Most-Watched IRL Broadcast On ESPN2 |
EVERYTHING BIGGER IN TEXAS: Last Saturday night's IRL Bombardier Learjet 550k from Texas Motor Speedway earned a 1.0 coverage area rating and 1,148,000 viewers on ESPN2 from 10:27pm-1:00am. The race marks the highest-rated and most-viewed IndyCar Series race broadcast in the net's history. The rating was up 42.9% from a 0.7 coverage rating for last year's race, while viewership was up 31.2% from 875,000 viewers (THE DAILY).
THE BAND PLAYS ON: With CTV securing the rights to "The Hockey Theme" after the CBC could not reach a deal with composer Dolores Claman, a sports exec unaffiliated with either net said, "A brand has a lot of elements to it, a visual element, an audio element. The CBC just lost part of its brand. So many brands have iconic jingles. This was an identifying brand element and they lost it" (GLOBE & MAIL, 6/11). But a VANCOUVER SUN editorial is written under the header, "CBC Sensible Not To Spend Millions On Hockey Song." It is "simply unreasonable for taxpayers to shell out millions of bucks for a song" (VANCOUVER SUN, 6/11).
JOB OPENING: In Minneapolis, Judd Zulgad reports T'Wolves radio analyst Billy McKinney has been hired by the Bucks as their Dir of Scouting. T'Wolves Senior VP/Marketing & Communications Ted Johnson, when asked if the team might "consider not using a radio analyst," said that the "team 'would explore all options,' but 'certainly is inclined to replace,' McKinney" (Minneapolis STAR TRIBUNE, 6/11).
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