Understanding Your Market
What we can learn from USA vs. Canada (in Hockey)
So Brad, the elite hacker, and I were talking Tuesday morning about the USA vs. Canada hockey game from Sunday night. It's being dubbed as the second greatest moment in USA Hockey history. When there might only be three such moments (only one other actually comes to mind), second place isn't that bad, or that good. Anyways, I listen to sports radio some, and on Monday the outrage that NBC put the game on MSNBC was everywhere. "How could they do this?!" Easy, we (25-45 year old male sports fans) weren't the demographic. The market for Olympic programming isn't us. It's your grandma, or sister, or mom. "But it's the biggest sporting event going right now, and this was the biggest game!?" More news, it's not sports. Phenomenal athletes abound, but there is a reason you don't get two hour pregame shows beforehand, and instead you get polar bears. Most of the events are subjectively judged on crazy and inconsistent criteria, and by humans to boot. If you have to count on the judge from Belarus to determine a winner, and not a clock or scoreboard, don't be surprised if it's not aimed and marketed to the typically sports fan.
NBC does what I would consider average coverage of sporting events. Their Sunday Night NFL show is decent. But their coverage of this years Winter Games has been a Read More...