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The FCC is going to end the blackout of the Indy 500 sooner or later. IMS should end it NOW! Not because it's inevitable, but because RATINGS will likely increase and lifting the blackout is unlikely to hurt the live gate!
Why do I say that? The history of blackouts and the Chicago Blackhawks.
For the uninitiated, the Chicago Blackhawks (owned by Bill Wirtz) NEVER EVER broadcast a home game. He died in 2007, and his son Rocky switched from broadcasting NO hame games to broadcasting EVERY home game for the 2008-2009 season.
Going by the logic of this board, one would expect TV ratings to tank and attendance at the games to fall.
PRECISELY THE OPPOSITE HAPPENED.TV Ratings Doubled Immediately and attendance went up 49%. That was just the FIRST season.
All games are now sold out, so there is no room for attendance growth. But ratings have continued to grow, and are 7.5 times higher now than they were the season before the Blackout ended. It's clear that the resurgence of Hockey in Chicago is a big reason why the NHL is up Nationwide. And all this is at a time when sports ratings and attendance generally are trending downward.
Would lifting the blackout have that kind of effect on Indycar? Probably not. But it certainly would not hurt. And to say it would obviously hurt Ratings or Attendance is to ignore precedent. The conventional Indycar wisdom on this matter has to be re-examined with a dose of the facts from the Blackhawks example. Or the Kentucky Derby. Or ….
FACTS behind the blasphemy:
Blackhawk Attendance averaged 14,498 per game for the seven seasons prior to the lifting of the Blackout. Since the blackout was lifted attendance has averaged 21,574 in a building that holds 21,775 for Hockey. All seasons covered are in the United Center and the capacity of the building for Hockey has not changed.
That's an increase of 49% in LIVE attendance. And it happened almost immediately. Putting the home games on TV simply increased awareness. People saw how much fun the games were and more people came.
As big as the effect was on attendance, it was dwarfed by the effect on Local TV Ratings. The average Chicago Market rating for Blackhawk road games on Comcast Sports Net (Most games are on CSN, some are on WGN) for the last year of the home blackout (2007-2008) was 0.63 (worse than the ratings for many Indycar races).
THE FIRST YEAR AFTER LIFTING THE BLACKOUT TV RATINGS DOUBLED to 1.26!
The average CSN ratings for the following seasons:
2008-2009: 1.26
2009-2010: 2.44
2010-2011: 2.78
2011-2012: 3.11
2012-2013: 5.38 (187,000 households)
THIS IS ALL AT A TIME WHEN SPORTS TV RATINGS AND IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE are DECLINING.
Side effects: How much are TV ratings up for the NHL in the last six years? How much of that can be attributed to the tremendous increase in popularity and awareness of Hockey in Chicago?
MY POINT: There is no reason to assume that lifting the Indy 500 blackout would have a negative impact on either ratings or attendance. I think ratings of the 500 in Indy are sure to JUMP the first year the blackout is lifted. This can only help the popularity and awareness of the series that calls indy home.
Will it hurt attendance? I doubt it. How many people do you know who go now who would not go it it were on live TV? It's a different experience.
Even if it does, it doesn't matter. TV Ratings are everything, And the blackhawks example shows that the blackout is hurting ratings of the Indy 500 in Indy. And probably hurting the ratings of the rest of the series in Indy as well.
Why do I say that? The history of blackouts and the Chicago Blackhawks.
For the uninitiated, the Chicago Blackhawks (owned by Bill Wirtz) NEVER EVER broadcast a home game. He died in 2007, and his son Rocky switched from broadcasting NO hame games to broadcasting EVERY home game for the 2008-2009 season.
Going by the logic of this board, one would expect TV ratings to tank and attendance at the games to fall.
PRECISELY THE OPPOSITE HAPPENED.TV Ratings Doubled Immediately and attendance went up 49%. That was just the FIRST season.
All games are now sold out, so there is no room for attendance growth. But ratings have continued to grow, and are 7.5 times higher now than they were the season before the Blackout ended. It's clear that the resurgence of Hockey in Chicago is a big reason why the NHL is up Nationwide. And all this is at a time when sports ratings and attendance generally are trending downward.
Would lifting the blackout have that kind of effect on Indycar? Probably not. But it certainly would not hurt. And to say it would obviously hurt Ratings or Attendance is to ignore precedent. The conventional Indycar wisdom on this matter has to be re-examined with a dose of the facts from the Blackhawks example. Or the Kentucky Derby. Or ….
FACTS behind the blasphemy:
Blackhawk Attendance averaged 14,498 per game for the seven seasons prior to the lifting of the Blackout. Since the blackout was lifted attendance has averaged 21,574 in a building that holds 21,775 for Hockey. All seasons covered are in the United Center and the capacity of the building for Hockey has not changed.
That's an increase of 49% in LIVE attendance. And it happened almost immediately. Putting the home games on TV simply increased awareness. People saw how much fun the games were and more people came.
As big as the effect was on attendance, it was dwarfed by the effect on Local TV Ratings. The average Chicago Market rating for Blackhawk road games on Comcast Sports Net (Most games are on CSN, some are on WGN) for the last year of the home blackout (2007-2008) was 0.63 (worse than the ratings for many Indycar races).
THE FIRST YEAR AFTER LIFTING THE BLACKOUT TV RATINGS DOUBLED to 1.26!
The average CSN ratings for the following seasons:
2008-2009: 1.26
2009-2010: 2.44
2010-2011: 2.78
2011-2012: 3.11
2012-2013: 5.38 (187,000 households)
THIS IS ALL AT A TIME WHEN SPORTS TV RATINGS AND IN-PERSON ATTENDANCE are DECLINING.
Side effects: How much are TV ratings up for the NHL in the last six years? How much of that can be attributed to the tremendous increase in popularity and awareness of Hockey in Chicago?
MY POINT: There is no reason to assume that lifting the Indy 500 blackout would have a negative impact on either ratings or attendance. I think ratings of the 500 in Indy are sure to JUMP the first year the blackout is lifted. This can only help the popularity and awareness of the series that calls indy home.
Will it hurt attendance? I doubt it. How many people do you know who go now who would not go it it were on live TV? It's a different experience.
Even if it does, it doesn't matter. TV Ratings are everything, And the blackhawks example shows that the blackout is hurting ratings of the Indy 500 in Indy. And probably hurting the ratings of the rest of the series in Indy as well.
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