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BrauBlog

Vikings-Packers: Bigger than the Super Bowl

By David Brauer | Published Mon, Nov 2 2009 11:35 am

Sunday's Vikings-Packers game not only produced a monster Twin Cities rating — a 47, meaning 47 percent of all household with TVs — it topped last February's Super Bowl.

And for good measure, Favre's homecoming racked up a 76 percent share. That meant three-quarters of all households with TVs on watched the game, more than the past three Super Bowls locally.

Cherry on top for Fox9: The game had an 86 percent share among men ages 25 to 54. So guys, if you weren't watching, you are truly special. [Update: Share among all 25-to-54 adults was 79 percent. Overall, 822,000 Twin Cities households were tuned in.]

Here's the data:

Vikes-Packers (11/1/09): 47 rating, 76 share
Super Bowl 2009 (Steelers-Cardinals): 45.6 rating, 68 share
Super Bowl 2008 (Giants-Patriots): 49 rating, 74 share
Super Bowl 2007 (Colts-Bears): 49.9 rating, 73 share

Media | Mon, Nov 2 2009 11:35 am | 9 Comments

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9 Comments: Hide/Show Comments

(#1) On November 2, 2009, karl anderson says:

Interesting.

Didn't you mention the Strib lost reach (between print and digital) in the Twin Cities to 67%? That would put them around the 2009 SuperBowl audience every week. Or am I not remembering correctly?

Great game by the way!

Bring on the Saints!

(#2) On November 2, 2009, Author David Brauer says:

"karl" -

You're not remembering correctly. Strib's combined metro-area reach was 52 percent as of March 2009 - and that's for seven days print/30 days online, not for a single three-hour event.

Strib is very much a mass medium, but the trend is down even with print+web, by the way.

(#3) On November 2, 2009, karl anderson says:

Thank you for the clarification!

What is MinnPosts reach over 30 days in the Twin Cities? Is it increasing or decreasing?

There is an interesting website called compete.com which measures web traffic. It has your website at 70,476 (declining about 5% for the year). The Strib is at 1.7 million - up 25% for the year.

It will be interesting to see how that 52% number changes.....

(#4) On November 2, 2009, Author David Brauer says:

Can't speak to the Strib, but Compete number for us is off by a factor of at least two. Better is Quantcast:

http://www.quantcast.com/minnpost.com

No doubt we have our traffic challenges, especially post-recount.

However, there's a fundamental difference between an online-only publication designed for a niche audience and one whose economic model is built on mass. I'd check out Joel Kramer's analysis of core traffic versus drive-by elsewhere on the site.

The trick for most publications going forward isn't one-shot traffic, which is what the overall traffic measures. It's engaged readers willing to pay, and the advertisers willing to reach those engaged audiences. Most of the drive-bys pump the page views - see Favre:Brett - but not the cash registers. There's some monetization in the national drive-bys, and every bit helps, but it's easy to overrate.

The Strib's audience is about a third regulars, which is good but likely not enough to preserve the staff they have given still-large operating cost structure. The problem comes if you have to cut those operating costs and try to retain regular readers. MinnPost's advantage in this area, if you remove scale, is a lower cost structure and more flexibility.

(#5) On November 2, 2009, Karl Pearson-Cater says:

http://twitter.com/bigboxcar

"karl"

Try using Quantcast.com instead of Compete.com. MinnPost.com is quantified so you know data is accurate. StarTribune.com however is not yet quantified. You sound like you might work at the Strib, so contact Jay Erdahl and ask him to get in touch with Quantcast.

(#6) On November 2, 2009, leslie johnson says:

David,

If you are referring to both the outstate and Twin Cities (the DMA), the reach would be about 52%.

However, a more accurate focus is the 13 county area(CBSA). That number is 63% reach for the StarTribune between print and digital.

Either is an impressive number given the splintering of media nowadays. Whether it holds is open to question however.

My question would be are you referring to televisions in the Twin Cities OR are you referring to the entire state of Minnesota.

(#7) On November 2, 2009, Erik Hare says:

http://erikhare.wordpress.com/

That is an amazing viewership! It's so big that it might be a good time to analyze the ads that ran during that time to see what kind of "bump" the various products, teevee shows, and so on got from it. If there is any value in teevee advertising that rises above generating quick buzz and hype, we'd see it here.

(footnote -- I'm glad to see your quantcast numbers are very close to what I can estimate by alexa data. Mine are very far off, probably because I'm hosted for free at wordpress. Really upsetting.)

(#8) On November 2, 2009, Author David Brauer says:

now c'mon leslie/karl - settle on a name here.

I do Designated Market Area because it's the only thing on Audit Bureau of Circulations that isn't subject to manipulation, unlike Net Designated Market that can be redefined downward to hike penetration %s.

With DMA trends down though, I doubt NDM or CBSA would be different, but will go back and check.

The Strib *is* still a mass medium, as I've always noted. I'd like it to stay that way. But trends are negative, even with online, which most people don't recognize. Print penetration at least double online, still.

TV is Mpls-St.Paul market, which I believe is bigger than CBSA.

(#9) On November 2, 2009, Erik Hare says:

http://erikhare.wordpress.com/

By my estimates, print to online readership ratios vary between 2 to 1 (citypages) to about 8 to 1 for most large papers (Strib, PP). Outstate papers have even higher ratios, running from 10 to 1 for the St Cloud times to 23 to 1 for the Mankato Free Press.

This is the ratio between estimated unique visits per month to total published print circulation.

It figures that citypages has an unusually low ratio, so consider the range of about 10 to 1 to be a good first guess for most dailies.

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David Brauer authors Braublog and is MinnPost's local media reporter. He's covered media and politics as a writer and editor since 1983 for City Pages, the Southwest/Downtown Journal, KFAN and KSTP-AM, Mpls.St.Paul, Minnesota Monthly, Law & Politics, the Business Journal, KARE11 and national outlets. Follow him on Twitter. Email: dbrauer [at] minnpost [dot] com.

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