Originally Posted by dave_windows:
“Im sure Impact gets better ratings in the UK than america does.”
It doesn't.
I posted the Impact UK ratings in the UK through to June 8 a few days ago (
HERE). They are in fact noticeably lower than in the US and always have been, This however should not be surprising. Impact should be drawing more viewers in the US than it does the UK.
Originally Posted by JCR:
“The massive drop off in UK ratings suggests star power does matter in the UK in ways it doesn't for TNA in America, strangely enough.”
Massive drop off is an overstatement. The numbers are down in the UK (about 23% year-on-year through June 8) but in truth that's not as big as it might seem and doesn't take into account a couple of things the erosion in viewers started during the final stages of 2014 for example. Its also worth mentioning that Impact viewers did come back at the start of the year (despite the lack of star power) they just didn't stick around. This can be read as them being hit by a lack of star power or it can be read as UK audiences simply not liking the product. Its also quite probable that recent audience drops are down to the fact that broadly speaking the UK audience is smarky (for lack of a better term) than the US audience so the general bad press about TNA's future probably hurts them more here than the US.
I'd also just add that looking at the numbers I suspect WWE's year-on-year drop for the first half of the year is probably more than 23% in the UK although admittedly I haven't actually done the maths on that.
Quote:
“TNA was not in the top 10 shows for Challenge for the week ending 14th June, meaning it had less than 107 thousand viewers. It was over 200 thousand for almost all of 2012.”
The television landscape has changed dramatically even since 2012. Very few shows have retained the same level of viewership they had three years ago.
Originally Posted by Chicharito14:
“The ratings system is different over here isn't it?”
Not particularly.
Originally Posted by JCR:
“Yes, here you just get total number of viewers reported, where as in America who the viewers were is far more important, as advertisers generally don't care if pensioners or kids are watching there.”
That's at best a difference in reporting rather than attitudes or what advertisers want. Demographics are just as important here as they are in the US.