Colin would quit if he had to cover an eSport.

[MikeO]

The only one playing around with the numbers is you Brian. Look Poker and Hockey is close to the same viewership in this country. In the NHL playoffs the NHL might eek out a win here or there. During the NHL regular season Poker draws higher ratings than most MLB, NBA, and NHL games. Those are facts, not sure why you want to argue that stance. Poker has a large TV following in this country.

The point being made is what is more watched on TV. If you did a poll more people might like going to live hockey events, playing hockey, and such compared to playing poker. But when it comes to TV Watching....more people would rather watch POKER on TV than hockey! Just a fact. Also the fact that its the 1st or 2nd most DVR'd program on ESPN speaks volumes! NO other sport draws DVR viewership and rankings like that.

And you can't compare NHL games on NBC (network) to Poker games on cable. You must compare NHL games on NBCSN to Poker on ESPN. Cable to Cable comparison. IF Hockey is so much more popular it shouldn't matter if its on NBCSN

[masterfins]

Under what objective definition can table tennis not be considered a sport?

I don't really care about objective definitions, or the parsing of words, etc.  It's like pornography vs. art, a Supreme Court Justice said when you look at it you can tell what is art and what is pornography.  Now one person may look at something and say that's pornography, while I may look at it and say "that's some fine art and I want to hang it in my living room".  Same with the discussion here on what constitutes a "sport".  I'm a little older than some of you, so I go with the classics as "sports": baseball, football, basketball, hockey, tennis, golf, softball, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, and I'm probably missing a few others.  Some of you may consider Nascar a "sport", I don't.  Yes I would agree that you have to be in great shape to drive those damn cars for 600 miles, I just don't call it a "sport"; if you want to I'm not gonna argue with you over it.

Sorry, but video games are games, not sports and not athletic events.  Otherwise, you might as well consider playing monopoly and risk as competing in "sports".

[Pappy13]

Because the discussion, as ludicrous and tangential it is, was that more people are interested in hockey than poker.

Yet, somehow it devolved into tv ratings for a particular event.

You want to compare ALL poker events (one) to all hockey events as a metric?  fine.  But don't compare all poker events to an AVERAGE of all hockey games and tell me that "more people like poker than hockey." 

Got to agree with Brian here. If there are 4 hockey games on TV in one night you can't compare 1 of the games to a single poker tournament. You got to compare the totals for all 4 hockey games to the single poker tournament. At the very least you have to add the numbers of 2 hockey games that are on at the same time with the 1 poker tournament. No one is watching both hockey games at the same time, so if each is getting 250K, then hockey is getting 500K at the time.

[MikeO]

Got to agree with Brian here. If there are 4 hockey games on TV in one night you can't compare 1 of the games to a single poker tournament. You got to compare the totals for all 4 hockey games to the single poker tournament. At the very least you have to add the numbers of 2 hockey games that are on at the same time with the 1 poker tournament. No one is watching both hockey games at the same time, so if each is getting 250K, then hockey is getting 500K at the time.

Um, NO! The NHL never has 4 national games broadcast during the regular season on a cross country Cable network on one night. They may air a bunch of games regionally but NBC Sports Network never airs 4 national games in one night during the regular season. Hence you take the 1 national game they do air and you can compare it to the poker ratings. That's how it works.

Can't compare a Phoenix-Nashville game that is only airing in 2 markets to a national poker rating on ESPN. That isn't fair. You take the 1 NHL game broadcast nationally on NBCSN and compare it to the Poker on ESPN. You can't add up 12 hockey games in a single night and count that as one rating.

[Pappy13]

Um, NO! The NHL never has 4 national games broadcast during the regular season on a cross country Cable network on one night.

I'm not talking regular season, I'm talking playoffs. Pretty sure they were showing 4 nationally televised games all last week. 2 games on NBC and 2 games on NBCSN or whatever it's called.

[MikeO]

I'm not talking regular season, I'm talking playoffs. Pretty sure they were showing 4 nationally televised games all last week. 2 games on NBC and 2 games on NBCSN or whatever it's called.

Yeah in the playoffs, but doesn't change the fact that Poker gets higher ratings than the vast majority of MLB, NHL, and NBA regular season games. That's the bulk of the sports season!  The damn regular season. that's what this conversation was about

P.S...NBC doesn't count in this comparison because thats a NETWORK. These are cable ratings. 2 very different worlds. They ratings aren't calculated the same and aren't equivalent

[Pappy13]

Yeah in the playoffs

You specifically brought up playoffs.

And this is the opening round this year of PLAYOFF (not regular season, but PLAYOFF) hockey

[MikeO]

You specifically brought up playoffs.

um, no. I was quoting the example FROM THE ARTICLE!! Nice job removing the rest of the sentence and the context of the post.  Nevermind. You clearly can't keep up with this conversation. It's clearly way over your head

[Pappy13]

Was this from the article too?

In the NHL playoffs the NHL might eek out a win here or there.

[MikeO]

Was this from the article too?

No but its a fact...lol

Want to compare nationally televised Cable NHL playoff games to Cable Poker events?  Go for it, the NHL will win a few nights and Poker will win some nights. They will go back and forth, nobody is saying otherwise. But it ain't gonna be by much when either wins the night. Then when the regular season rolls around Poker will crush it in the ratings night in and night out

Nobody is knocking hockey. I love hockey. But the facts are the facts

[Pappy13]

Want to compare nationally televised Cable NHL playoff games to Cable Poker events?  Go for it, the NHL will win a few nights and Poker will win some nights. They will go back and forth, nobody is saying otherwise. But it ain't gonna be by much when either wins the night.

All I'm saying is that if the NHL has 2 games on at the same time, you have to combine the viewers for each to get the total for hockey. That's what Brian was pointing out. I agreed with him on that point. Do you agree or disagree with that point? 2 games at 250K viewership each at the same time beats 1 poker tourney at 450K viewership. Yes or no?

[MikeO]

All I'm saying is that if the NHL has 2 games on at the same time, you have to combine the viewers for each to get the total for hockey. That's what Brian was pointing out. I agreed with him on that point. Do you agree or disagree with that point? 2 games at 250K viewership at the same time beats 1 poker tourney at 450K viewership. Yes or no?

No, I don't agree because that's not how TV ratings work in this country. You can't combine the audience of 2 different events on 2 different channels for 1 rating.

That's now how ratings work and how they are calculated.  You go to an advertiser with that logic and they will laugh in your face. If the NHL splits the baby by putting 2 NATIONAL games on cable at the same time (which only happens in the playoffs and is the exception not the norm) they are only hurting themselves. It's bad business and they can't claim victory when the 1 poker event draws a higher rating than each individual hockey game.

[Pappy13]

No, I don't agree because that's not how TV ratings work in this country. You can't combine the audience of 2 different events on 2 different channels for 1 rating.

Has nothing to do with the rating, has to do with what the total audience is for the sport. 2 games for the same sport at the same time count toward the total for that sport. As far as the advertising goes it's cumulative as well. If I agree to put my ad on 2 of your channels at the same time that are each getting 250K viewership, I'm getting 500K views for my ad across those 2 channels. That's better than putting my ad on 1 channel that's going to get 450K viewers.

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

[Brian Fein]

This thread has run its course.
 

No, I don't agree because that's not how TV ratings work in this country. You can't combine the audience of 2 different events on 2 different channels for 1 rating.

the statement was who would watch hockey (the sport, not one specific game) vs poker.  All events on all channels for each. 

The Sport - on ANY channel - not a singular event.

Another good thread ruined by a MikeO semantics festival.

[MikeO]

This thread has run its course.
 the statement was who would watch hockey (the sport, not one specific game) vs poker.  All events on all channels for each. 

The Sport - on ANY channel - not a singular event.

Another good thread ruined by a MikeO semantics festival.

Um, no. You changed the argument half way through when you realized you were wrong. YOU said this originally..

I'd love you to take a poll to see if people would rather watch a hockey game or a poker game.  We'll see which is more popular.

That is a singular event. Game vs Game.  But whatever,. Stay Classy Brian!