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Many faithful Rams fans are veering from the flock, at least in terms of watching the team on television.
A decade of malaise, unfulfilled expectations — and 10 consecutive seasons without a winning record — culminated in 2013 with the Rams having their fourth-worst TV ratings performance of their 19 seasons in St. Louis. That extends a trend, as three of the four bottom numbers have come in the last six seasons.
The Nielsen Co. says 17.7 percent of homes with a TV in the market tuned in to telecasts of their games this season, which is a 16 percent decline over 2012 and 34 percent drop from three seasons ago.
The lowest rating for the Rams’ St. Louis era was the 15.8 figure they drew in 1998, their fourth year in town. That came for a 4-12 season to drop the club’s record to 22-42 since moving to Missouri. That’s a winning percentage of .344. The last 10 seasons have been even worse — the combined record of 51-108-1 translates into a winning percentage of .321.
The vast majority of the Rams’ games are aired by the Fox network, and its local affiliate (KTVI, Channel 2) gets those telecasts.
But as station general manager Spencer Koch points out, even in a down year the Rams do better in the ratings than any other regular program — sports or otherwise.
“They’re our Rams and they still do good numbers,” Koch said, pointing out that ratings in general aren’t what they were even a few years ago because of the vast increase in mobile devices and other ways to follow sporting events.
He estimated that if the Rams’ storybook rise from the ashes to the Super Bowl title in the 1999 season and their ensuing glory years were recreated now, the ratings would be about 20-25 percent less than they were then.
“The were doing 30 ratings, you probably figure they’d do 25s — again a great number in this (era),’’ he said. “In this day and age if you do a 2 rating (in the target demographic) in daytime it’s a hit. Ten years ago, if it was a 2 you were off to the washes and were gone. But over the air television is still the strongest vehicle (to deliver content) despite the numbers being down.”
Although it’s largely an apples-to-oranges comparison, it still is worth noting that the Rams’ rating for 2013 was more than double the 8.8 figure the Cardinals generated for their local package of telecasts on Fox Sports Midwest. But the big difference is that there were 147 baseball telecasts — at a wide variety of times spread across all seven days of the week — whereas the Rams were a once-a-week show 16 times, 14 on Sunday afternoons.
And the Rams remain a key aspect of KTVI’s business plan, what with a weekly pregame program on Sundays, a postgame show some weeks and coach Jeff Fisher appearing on Monday nights.
“It’s been part of Fox 2’s makeup, and despite all the change it still is a big part of our makeup,” Koch said of the team. “The issue of how much (money) we make I think is irrelevant to the overall impact of what we do” with the team because of the ancillary benefits.
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainme...cle_498e94ba-e187-5d15-841f-65c4753d7ca2.html
A decade of malaise, unfulfilled expectations — and 10 consecutive seasons without a winning record — culminated in 2013 with the Rams having their fourth-worst TV ratings performance of their 19 seasons in St. Louis. That extends a trend, as three of the four bottom numbers have come in the last six seasons.
The Nielsen Co. says 17.7 percent of homes with a TV in the market tuned in to telecasts of their games this season, which is a 16 percent decline over 2012 and 34 percent drop from three seasons ago.
The lowest rating for the Rams’ St. Louis era was the 15.8 figure they drew in 1998, their fourth year in town. That came for a 4-12 season to drop the club’s record to 22-42 since moving to Missouri. That’s a winning percentage of .344. The last 10 seasons have been even worse — the combined record of 51-108-1 translates into a winning percentage of .321.
The vast majority of the Rams’ games are aired by the Fox network, and its local affiliate (KTVI, Channel 2) gets those telecasts.
But as station general manager Spencer Koch points out, even in a down year the Rams do better in the ratings than any other regular program — sports or otherwise.
“They’re our Rams and they still do good numbers,” Koch said, pointing out that ratings in general aren’t what they were even a few years ago because of the vast increase in mobile devices and other ways to follow sporting events.
He estimated that if the Rams’ storybook rise from the ashes to the Super Bowl title in the 1999 season and their ensuing glory years were recreated now, the ratings would be about 20-25 percent less than they were then.
“The were doing 30 ratings, you probably figure they’d do 25s — again a great number in this (era),’’ he said. “In this day and age if you do a 2 rating (in the target demographic) in daytime it’s a hit. Ten years ago, if it was a 2 you were off to the washes and were gone. But over the air television is still the strongest vehicle (to deliver content) despite the numbers being down.”
Although it’s largely an apples-to-oranges comparison, it still is worth noting that the Rams’ rating for 2013 was more than double the 8.8 figure the Cardinals generated for their local package of telecasts on Fox Sports Midwest. But the big difference is that there were 147 baseball telecasts — at a wide variety of times spread across all seven days of the week — whereas the Rams were a once-a-week show 16 times, 14 on Sunday afternoons.
And the Rams remain a key aspect of KTVI’s business plan, what with a weekly pregame program on Sundays, a postgame show some weeks and coach Jeff Fisher appearing on Monday nights.
“It’s been part of Fox 2’s makeup, and despite all the change it still is a big part of our makeup,” Koch said of the team. “The issue of how much (money) we make I think is irrelevant to the overall impact of what we do” with the team because of the ancillary benefits.
http://www.stltoday.com/entertainme...cle_498e94ba-e187-5d15-841f-65c4753d7ca2.html
