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New Year’s Eve war: TV Ratings
By Zach Arnold | January 1, 2006
Video Research Ltd. Co. Japan is starting to release the TV ratings for the New Year’s Eve war from Japan. Tokushima Shimbun (newspaper) reports that the Kohaku (Red & White) Music Festival on NHK drew ratings of 35.4% (Part 1) and 42.9% (Part 2), which signals an increase from last year’s all-time record low ratings.
NHK Ratings (Japanese) Table: Video Research Ltd. Co. Japan
Sankei Shimbun (Fuji TV line of media) has some initial MMA show ratings. The 8-11 PM time slot rating (the PRIDE show lasted from 6 PM to 11:45 PM) drew a 17.0% rating for the 3-hour block. The K-1 Osaka Dome show drew a 14.8% rating. These are not complete ratings, but this is the first data that has come in.
Update: Asahi Shimbun (newspaper) reports the following: K-1 – 14.8%, PRIDE – 15.3%. The Asahi link is now broken. Use this link instead: Yahoo News – Japan.
Update II: Nippon TV’s Grand Prix comedy show with Razor Ramon HG drew a 9.1% rating. “Beat” Takeshi Kitano’s “TV Tackle SP” show on TV-Asahi with Yoshihiro Takayama drew a 6.0% rating. N-TV’s weekender show drew a 10.4% rating.
Update III: More from Asahi Shimbun: The TBS Japanese records award show (which aired before the K-1 show) did a 10.0% rating and TV Tokyo’s own musical New Year’s Eve show did a 9.3% rating.
Update IV: Chunichi Sports (Nagoya) notes that the PRIDE show from 8-11 PM drew a 14.5% local rating in Nagoya, with the K-1 show drawing a 13.2% local rating in Nagoya. The overall ratings measured in the Kanto (Tokyo region) were higher than those outside of that market.
Personal thoughts: This is very disappointing news. Tanigawa (K-1 matchmaker) was hoping for 25%. Sakakibara and DSE were hoping for a 20%. PRIDE winning is a shocker. They won the battle, but in the overall war… ratings were down for both organizations. Interest was not there like it was in previous years, so far.
I saw this post over at MMA Weekly. Hey, MMA Weekly, give us some link love!
In 2004, Dynamite drew a 20.1% rating and PRIDE had a peak rating of 18.3%. Total: 38.4%. In 2005, Dynamite drew a 14.8% and PRIDE had a peak rating of 17.0%. Total: 31.8%. A drop of around 18% in a year.
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