ESPN giving rebates to advertisers for low CFP ratings

[FanuSanu52]

Read the thread. Not a hint of whining, so yeah, your memory sucks. Also, not sure why you seem so wound up about a self-congratulatory post - hundreds per week on this board, but for some reason mine annoyed you. Whatever. And nothing premature about calling it a bad business choice - the ratings speak for themselves, which was completely predictable - NY Eve is simply a very bad choice for these semis. Case closed.

https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/threads/cfb-playoffs-being-on-new-years-eve.60803/#post-1266870

So did you link directly to that post, instead of the greater thread, because you didn't want me to read the part where a different poster called you out for whining? Well, I did read that part, both then and now, and misremembered nothing. And you even continued whining into the post about the ratings drop.

You answered your own bolded question quite well. Could have been any one of those "hundreds per week" that I targeted, happened to be yours. Will do the same in the future when another inevitable self-congrats post annoys me. Seriously, no one in the entire world cares that you were right on the Internet, not even your mother. Just make the argument; enough with the "I told you so" and "I'm super, extra special because I was right" posts. They're excruciating.

If you really, really need a single reason, though, the "No way, said I" phrasing just pushed the overall smug, self aggrandizing tone a little too far.

As to the meat of the argument, definitely premature. That 36 percent drop was compared to last year - the very first playoffs and top rated cable programming in history, which included an intriguing upset. The teams were also better last year, from a ratings perspective. This year was primed to drop even without the NYE date, but NYE certainly didn't help. NYD was pre-established as game day, whereas this was the first time playing these level of games on NYE. I'll bet that a lot of casual fans didn't find out until too late. I'd say I'm a little above a casual fan and didn't realize until the holiday week, when they were playing the ads non-stop. Don't necessarily expect them to reach NYD numbers in the future, do expect there's plenty of room to improve. Aren't you a scientist - shouldn't you be waiting for more than two sets of loaded data before drawing definitive conclusions? Whatever we think, it seems like the CFP is committed to this idea for now

 

[RU848789]

Read the thread. Not a hint of whining, so yeah, your memory sucks. Also, not sure why you seem so wound up about a self-congratulatory post - hundreds per week on this board, but for some reason mine annoyed you. Whatever. And nothing premature about calling it a bad business choice - the ratings speak for themselves, which was completely predictable - NY Eve is simply a very bad choice for these semis. Case closed.

https://rutgers.forums.rivals.com/threads/cfb-playoffs-being-on-new-years-eve.60803/#post-1266870

So did you link directly to that post, instead of the greater thread, because you didn't want me to read the part where a different poster called you out for whining? Well, I did read that part, both then and now, and misremembered nothing. And you even continued whining into the post about the ratings drop.

I thought I was linking to the thread so anyone who wanted to could read it and realize I didn't whine once in 4 posts. I assumed we were done and that you wouldn't try to argue the whining part further, since you were so clearly wrong. But you did and now I have to hit you over the head with your stupidity. Below is my first post from that thread, then bac's comment, then my response to bac's comment, and below that are my other two posts in the thread, none of which involved any whining on my part.

Really dumb decision - many, many people, including about 30 at my house won't be watching football on NY Eve. NY Day is way better. Surprised they'd agree to do this.

then I guess you guys really aren't college football fans.....call the waaaaaaaaaahmbulance

I don't get your post - I'm not complaining in any way, just noting what I think is a dumb decision from a viewership perspective. NY Eve Party >>>>> watching football on NY Eve, so yeah, I'm a way bigger fan of blowout parties than college football bowl games.

Pretty sure 99.9% of the world would agree that I wasn't whining in my first post (just calling it a dumb decision, which it was). And to this day I have no idea why bac invoked the waaaahmbulance line, although I suspect he was referring to others, by his use of "you guys" - I even asked and amplified how I wasn't complaining, but was just noting it as a dumb decision - which is still true, as I really don't care much what day the games are on.

My last two posts in the thread, below, were also not whining in any way I can see (usually when someone says he'll be "losing zero sleep over it" that person doesn't care). All 4 of my posts in this thread were all about what a dumb business decision it was, not about me whining or being annoyed or whatever. I really don't give a crap about every other team (I only care about RU, really), which is why I don't watch most of the bowls and didn't give a crap about the semis, from a personal perspective.

"No offense, but what kind of lame NY Eve Party involves TV of any kind, except maybe the last few minutes of the countdown? NY Eve is party time, not TV time. Bad decision, IMO, from a viewership perspective, but I'll be losing zero sleep over it."

"As predicted...ratings down 39%...monumentally dumb decision to move the games to NY Eve. Why mess with the great tradition they had for decades on NY Day?"

By the way, the "no way said I" comment was a complete goof (over the top smarmy) that I thought might get a chuckle - I've never used that phrasing before and probably won't again, given the response, lol.

And whether or not the 36% drop is indicative of the future state or is just a one off is obviously unknown, but I'd far rather have the first data point hugely in my favor than not. There are also things that simply seem blindingly obvious, such that years of data aren't required to confirm an outcome - like the stupidity of moving away from decades of New Year's Day tradition for the semis.

 

[FanuSanu52]

I'll tell ya what, if you agree that you could have just discussed the point without the unnecessary pat on the back, given that half the world shared that same prediction, I'll drop the whole whining part of my official complaint :)

Overall, we're arguing oranges and tangerines, anyway. I don't really disagree that NYD is much better, both for me personally and from a ratings perspective. I'm just willing to let them play the little strategy out and see how it goes, without declaring it a failure right away. This year was gonna drop; it was just a question of how far. I expect it will ultimately fail, but won't be quite as bad as this year's numbers make it seem. It seems like maybe they think they can have their cake and eat it, too, taking NYD for granted (still have two majors in the Rose and Sugar) and 'owning' NYE, making the combo better than it'd be if the games were reversed. Kinda makes sense as an experiment - people will watch games on NYD no matter what, so if you could get a big audience on NYE with the playoffs, you make it quite a 1-2 holiday punch. Not how I would have gone, but it's good ... it's INNOVATIVE!

 

[brgossRU90]

The NC game will probably have low ratings too. Nobody cares about Clemson and they're probably getting tired of alabama.

 

[Abro1975]

Keeping the semi's on NYE is doubling down on stupid. Just place the games before and after the Rose Bowl. THEN, schedule the Title game the following Friday night , the heck with Monday night. Or even put it on Sunday night after the last NFL wild card game.

 

[RU848789]

I'll tell ya what, if you agree that you could have just discussed the point without the unnecessary pat on the back, given that half the world shared that same prediction, I'll drop the whole whining part of my official complaint :)

Overall, we're arguing oranges and tangerines, anyway. I don't really disagree that NYD is much better, both for me personally and from a ratings perspective. I'm just willing to let them play the little strategy out and see how it goes, without declaring it a failure right away. This year was gonna drop; it was just a question of how far. I expect it will ultimately fail, but won't be quite as bad as this year's numbers make it seem. It seems like maybe they think they can have their cake and eat it, too, taking NYD for granted (still have two majors in the Rose and Sugar) and 'owning' NYE, making the combo better than it'd be if the games were reversed. Kinda makes sense as an experiment - people will watch games on NYD no matter what, so if you could get a big audience on NYE with the playoffs, you make it quite a 1-2 holiday punch. Not how I would have gone, but it's good ... it's INNOVATIVE!

Done.