Is Anyone Aware That The Largest Television Audience Ever For A Regular Season Sporting Event Could Take Place Tonight?
Friday, November 09, 2007
Pats versus Colts - Largest audience during the game 33.8 million
Super Bowl XLI- Largest audience during the game 93 million
Add those two audiences together, mix in every Friday Night ESPN game EVER televised, and you might come close to tonight's international behemoth of a game. That's right folks.....
It's Yi versus Yao I!!!
I know you're laughing right now, but seriously check out these statistics surrounding the to Chinese Superstars' first meeting.
- The game will be telecast on a total of 19 networks around the world
- The game will also be simulcast on 2 internet outlets in China
- The channel CCTV-5 in China is available in 210 million households
Via the Houston Chronicle......
Yao's first game against Shaquille O'Neal in 2002 drew an estimated audience of 220 million and the largest cable television ratings in the United States for a regular-season game since the 1995 comeback of Magic Johnson.So here's the question I have for you.....David Stern is obviously succeeding in his dream to globalize the Sport of Basketball, but do us as Americans (most of you readers are) even care about this game at all? One of, if not the, most watched sporting events ever will go unwatched by probably 99% of the United States. How crazy is that?
"I heard there were close to 200 million people that watched," Yao said. "But come on, in our country, we have (1.3) billion. That's still a small part of it." Yi's first televised NBA game drew an audience estimated at 100 million, but it went up against a Rockets game that was available on other regional cable networks.
250 million other people will be watching this game, but not you.....because no outlet in America will be covering it.
UPDATE: Via Hardwood Paroxysm comes the news that ESPN isn't even carrying this game. I could have sworn they were, but I guess that answers my question. America doesn't care.
Yikes! Yao vs. Yi is huge (Houston Chronicle)
16 Comments:
Yi has been good so far, which is a surprise.
I will be attending some Ohio High School Football playoff action tonight, not watching 2 communists battle on the hardwood.
largest audience ever, my @$$...you ever hear of a little thing called the "World Cup Final"?
The Arsenal-Man United game last weekend had over 300 million households. The English Premier League and the NBA will be in a huge battle the next 10 years to decide which sport soccer or basketball will be king in China.
I meant a "real" sport. Just kidding....okay you have me there, but an international tournament versus a regular season NBA game? Come on.
If Yao-Yi hits half of the 600 mil that the 2004 WC Final had that'd be amazing.
gmoney -- which game?
you watch ESPN will now play up the big audience angle on SportsCenter like they came up with it.
great job again AA!!
anon, Napoleon (my alma mater) vs. Clyde at Toledo Central Catholic.
Soccer is for idiots who can't handle contact.
Idoit, they would rip off the newspaper who wrote the article. Unless the article ripped of AA and for some strange reason AA linked to it.
I know you have a brain, so use it.
Funny - but only the quoted part is attributed to the Houston Chronicle.
You saying AA stole the other parts and didn't give attribution?
HHhhmmm -- bet the paper's lawyers would like to read that.
Gmoney-screw Napoleon, Go Patrick Henry!! Best team in Henry Co.
No shit? A Patriot fan, eh? You are ignorant.
I don't think it has anything to do with no outlet covering it...I think no one gives two sh*ts about the NBA anymore.
I mean, hundreds of millions of people around the globe watch soccer too--and no one here (justifiably) gives a rats ass about it either.
Gmoney, jk, just wanted to see if you would catch that, haha...heres to 2 state championships this year in Henry Co.!!
93 Million is the quoted figure for Superbowl XLI...but that only counts US audience. I remember hearing a billion worldwide as the number thrown around.
Reportedly a billion people watched the Manchester United-Arsenal game last weekend. That number might be high, but even if only half as many watched the game it still dwarfs the NBA.
Do they have Nielsen over there or is it just what the, ahem, government reports?
Yi vs. Yawn...
I'm watching the Celts game tonight.
:)