Ratings matter to networks, but do they matter to the average fan that just wants to watch basketball or hockey? Ken Carman doesn’t think so. He said Tuesday on 92.3 The Fan that the talk is either dismissed or goes right over the audience’s head.
“I don’t think the general fan cares,” the Cleveland morning man said. “I don’t think that anybody in Northeast Ohio who is a basketball fan, like a guy who’s getting ready to go to work who is a 20-something NBA fan, I think they’re just going to watch. I don’t think they care.”
Carman’s partner Anthony Lima admits that he cares about ratings. That has more to do with being in the industry though. He thinks that the emphasis put on ratings in conversations that are not exclusively amongst industry professionals has taken on a largely political tone.
“Certain cable networks tell you not to watch sports because they feel they’ve gone too woke,” he said. “So they will celebrate people not watching sports. Fine, cool. If you get a rise out of that, then awesome for you.”
Ken Carman acknowledged that there are always going to be teams that draw a bigger audience than others. Usually, those are the teams in the biggest markets, but that isn’t always the case.
He pointed to the Green Bay Packers as a reliable ratings driver for the NFL. Superstars help too. The Cleveland Cavaliers were constantly put on national TV when LeBron James was on the team. That didn’t give him any sense of pride in his local team that he didn’t get from them winning and regularly contending for titles.
“It’s a weird galaxy brain thing,” Carman said. “I don’t need the NFL to have higher ratings. I don’t care. I don’t need the NBA to have higher ratings. I don’t care.”
Anthony Lima said he isn’t sure what people who celebrate low ratings are trying to accomplish or even why they are reported at all.
“I always laugh when people kind of rub people’s faces in the low ratings, like ‘Here you go. You guys watch something that wasn’t as watched as something last year.’ Cool. You got me.”
