I don’t get it. Well, actually I do. But that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
During the Stanley Cup Finals, NBC (and the NHL) recently decreed that both Pittsburgh and Detroit could not have public ‘viewing parties’ for Finals games. The reason? People who attend such parties (an outdoor big screen for the Pens and Joe Vision at Joe Louis Arena for the Wings) would not be at home watching the game.
Wait a second. So, instead of being a captive audience at a place where they can’t change the channel, NBC would rather people watch the game at home where they can switch stations, leave the room, multi-task or any other of number of options?
NBC’s logic? People need to be at home so they can determine viewers and base advertising rates on that. Really? Couldn’t you just call the Joe and say “Hey, how many tickets were sold for Joe Vision last night? …18,000? Great!” and have people do head counts at the out door things.
Yes, I realize on some level where they are coming from with the people being home so they can use the (horribly outdated) Nelson Rating system. But, I would argue that having a captive audience in the thousands at such events would be a pretty good indicator of who is and isn’t watching the game.
Think about it: say they’re using the NBC feed for Joe Vision and let’s say 10,000 people show up (which is probably more than actually do, but humor me). During commercials, most of that 10,000 is forced to sit through advertisements and they’ll have a better chance of hearing them than at, say a bar. This the same reason we’re seeing more and more commercials in movie theaters as of late (something I loathe) — a captive audience. They can’t watch something else.
But, at least NBC is better than VS in terms of coverage, although NBC’s overly pro-Pittsburgh/Sidney Crosby stance is annoying.
