Congratulations Houston Astros!
1985fan
Posts: 1,952 ✭✭
in Sports Talk
As if we thought the ratings bar was set incredibly low with their recent game which drew just 1,000 viewers, they just lowered the bar to the bottom on Sunday: no viewers. This story "Via the Chronicle, the Nielsen meters didn't budge. The game pulled a 0.00 rating in the Houston market. Officially and forever more, the Astros played a game and no one watched."
This is the same team led by a crooked owner trying to coerce TV carriers in the region to carry his team's games, but, with numbers like this, nobody's going to bite until his outrageous pricing comes down.
"CSN Houston "has been a bust," according to media research firm SNL Kagan.
SNL Kagan predicts CSN Houston will be unable to strike carriage deals until 2014 with Suddenlink, which services the Kingwood area and dozens of other markets across the five-state area, and 2015 with DirecTV. No projection was given for U-verse, and SNL Kagan said a deal with Dish Network is "unlikely," given its current stance on subscriber fees with regional sports networks.
A former AT&T official recently told an industry conference in New York that "viewer intensity" was so low in one of its key markets - presumably Houston - that U-verse did not fear losing customers if it delayed signing a deal with CSN Houston.
So maybe a 0.00 Nielsen rating sounds worse than it is, but if CSN Houston pulls more numbers like that without lowering its desired subscriber fee, it's going to be a long while before the majority of Houstonians are even able to watch Astros baseball."
This is the same team led by a crooked owner trying to coerce TV carriers in the region to carry his team's games, but, with numbers like this, nobody's going to bite until his outrageous pricing comes down.
"CSN Houston "has been a bust," according to media research firm SNL Kagan.
SNL Kagan predicts CSN Houston will be unable to strike carriage deals until 2014 with Suddenlink, which services the Kingwood area and dozens of other markets across the five-state area, and 2015 with DirecTV. No projection was given for U-verse, and SNL Kagan said a deal with Dish Network is "unlikely," given its current stance on subscriber fees with regional sports networks.
A former AT&T official recently told an industry conference in New York that "viewer intensity" was so low in one of its key markets - presumably Houston - that U-verse did not fear losing customers if it delayed signing a deal with CSN Houston.
So maybe a 0.00 Nielsen rating sounds worse than it is, but if CSN Houston pulls more numbers like that without lowering its desired subscriber fee, it's going to be a long while before the majority of Houstonians are even able to watch Astros baseball."
0
Comments
NBC Affiliates File Bankruptcy Petition For CSN Houston
"CSN Houston is carried in only 40 percent of Houston homes and has had a terrible time of negotiating carriage fees with providers like Verizon FIOS and AT&T. Throw in a terrible baseball team and it's a recipe for ***** ratings and literally zero Nielsen homes watching the network. According to NBC, part of the problem in getting the network in front of more eyes is the partnership structure and the bankruptcy petition is aimed at fixing that. "
Meanwhile, 24k tickets get sold a night, putting untold millions in the pockets of an owner who's far more interested in recouping his investment than in putting an actual winning team on the field, while "the Astros' 322 losses over three seasons are the fifth-most in big league history according to STATS, ahead of only the 1962-64 New York Mets (340), the 1963-65 Mets (332), the 1915-17 Philadelphia Athletics (324) and the 1940-42 Philadelphia Phillies (323)." They have a chance to make it 111 losses, and a 15 game losing streak to close the season out, which would tie them for third all time. Thank Jim Crane for continuing a Houston tradition!
"Houston (51-111) set a team record for defeats and had the most in the majors since Arizona lost the same amount in 2004. The Astros finished with the lengthiest season-ending losing streak since the 1899 Cleveland Spiders dropped their last 16, according to STATS."
As if that wasn't bad enough,
"The Astros' 324 losses over three years matched the 1917 Philadelphia Athletics for third most in major league history behind the 1962-64 New York Mets (340) and the 1963-65 Mets (332), according to STATS."
and! One more for the parade:
"Houston had two hits after the first inning and struck out 19 times. The Astros' season total of 1,535 set a major league record, six more than the previous mark by Arizona in 2010, and Chris Carter finished with 212 after whiffing three times; only Reynolds (223 in 2009) and Adam Dunn (222 last year) have struck out more."
Meanwhile, Jim Crane, Astros team owner, pocketed tens of millions of dollars this year while putting a substandard product on the field. Finally, this gem, which is in the running with the buttslide for worst play of the year:
The Minnesota Twins are right there with the Astros. New Ballpark and owners among the richest in MLB and they do nothing in free agency. Plenty of top line pitchers have been available in the last 3-4 years and they haven't made a strong bid for any of them.