Is there a way to get TV ratings by market for certain games? There was a list of college football TV ratings from the Houston area, but that's been one of the few markets uncovered.

Every so often someone claims to have seen overnight TV ratings for specific markets, but I'm skeptical of that unless someone provides a link to the numbers. Nielsen charges a lot for those market-specific ratings and doesn't put them out on the internet for everyone to get for free.

Every so often a network will release overnights, national or in certain markets, to brag about it, here is one example of that: http://espnmediazone.com/us/press-releas...ince-2004/

... but again, you can look at the link and see that it's there, it's not just someone out here on the interwebs claiming that a game did a 35.3 overnight in some market.

TV By The Numbers is the best site for ratings... they not only post the Network Ratings (Overnights and there adjustments later), but the Cable Ratings too... Not many people realize that Network TV and Cable TV ratings are actually released separately. ESPN, ESPN 2, NBC Sports Network, CBS Sports Network aren't rated alongside the networks: ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC, and CW.

Nielsen Ratings releases the top 100 cable shows daily... any of you ever wonder why USA Network and a few others run Law & Order Marathons - running Law & Order episodes one after another regularly 8-13 episodes in a row. Well most days each of those episodes will end up in the top 100... Two weeks ago, Law & Order: SUV had a marathon where 11 episodes ran on USA and 3 were in the top ten and all 11 were in the top 55 rated cable programs of the day on ALL of cable's 24 hour cycle. CRAZY!

Most Buffalo-Niagara media market numbers I've posted over the years come from a Buffalo News writer/blogger who reports on media and ratings. As mentioned, tvbythenumbers and sportmediawatch will sometimes also mention specific market numbers mostly for the biggest events, or to point out general trends, such as how Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Buffalo draw some of the best NHL ratings, even if their home team is not involved.

Yeah, TV By the Numbers is the best website for national ratings. Other types of ratings info is often spotty since they're usually released by the networks themselves (who always skew toward releasing great ratings while not issuing press releases for poor ratings).

There's some numbers for hockey that Steve Lepore from SBNation gets. In LA for example, Bruins/Blackhawks on NBCSN beat Yankees/Angels on Fox. Pretty sad. There's some markets where it is easier to get info than others. For example, Fort Myers/Naples does amazing with golf. For the Masters this year they got a 16.3.

College football has grown a lot since the 1980s. I found something where the 1985 Sugar Bowl was the lowest rated show on prime-time TV for that week, with a 7.2/10. Atlanta used to post them in the paper.

They said Penn State-Miami in the Fiesta Bowl in '87 drew a 25. That was the highest rated game for a long time (into the 90s).

I know last year SMU-Houston lost in the ratings in the Houston Market to a Dallas area high school game. Talk about embarrassing.

There are only a few markets where Nielsen does overnights. It's like the top 30.

(06-17-2013 10:41 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  There are only a few markets where Nielsen does overnights. It's like the top 30.

Ratings aren't so cut and dry anymore... You use to have to use a diary, remember what you watched, and for overnights answer a phone survey in the morning if you were one of the chosen households within the sample of the top markets. Now the Nielsen TV meters records and sends back instant feedback on the programming on your television

This means that more of the Nielsen households are now included in the overnight estimates than just those contacted the next morning for a phone survey, thus more accurate! So adjustments made when smaller markets or sweeps paper diaries are added they tend to be less severe, as the initial sample sizes are bigger and better!