MVN - Most Valuable Network

Beckham Mania and the “May Sweeps” period

This real-life in real-time example is a good tutorial for any of you who don’t already know about the importance and impact of a TV sweeps period, which impacts sports and our bigger celebrity culture as much as anything does in entertainment or sports…

‘Sweeps’ originally came from ’sweepstakes’, and for TV this is a quarterly ritual in which every network, every TV programmer and producer, and every station in the biggest cities down to every tiny berg pulls out all of the stops to catch the attention of you the viewer.  In short, it is a time when ad revenues are determined for future times. Therefore, ratings are the determining factor and are the statistics used to show advertisers the numbers of total viewers and very specific data on specific demographic groups.  If they can show their ratings go up during a particular sweeps period, they can raise their advertising rates.  If they can show they are number one in a particular day/hour, or with a particular group - whether it be sorted by age, race, gender, or other household factors used in ratings data, then they can potentially incur the highest ad rates and possibly attract new advertisers to their station or network based on these latest ’sweeps’ period results.

We are now at the beginning of the May Sweeps (April 24 - May 21), and I wanted to use this opportunity to show you how the media uses this time to showcase their best - to draw you in.

David Beckham, as the best-known of all current athletes, is certainly one who is included in the TV programming during sweeps to maximize ratings.  The best example during this May Sweeps so far is when he appeared on “The Ellen Degeneres Show” on the very first day of this sweeps period (Thursday, April 24).  Now, before any Beckham-bashers rail against him, understand that it was the producers of the show who wanted him to appear on that day, to kick off their sweeps programming in the biggest possible way.   Of course, he was available that day, as he was preparing for the SuperClasico on Saturday night at the Home Depot Center (by the way, he had his fourth assist of the season that night in the Galaxy’s 5-2 victory over Chivas USA). 

Every sport has their own superstars doing special  sweeps appearances.  Beckham is in high demand anytime, and already had some of his highest profile appearances on U.S. TV this year in a non-sweeps period, but it was just before the kickoff to the MLS season, so all the better reason to get the word out that he is first and foremost an athlete.  These extended interviews shown on networks including NBC, CNN, and CBS certainly helped people get to know him a little better, and for some they served as a reminder that he is still here and still important in the world of American and Major League soccer.

Now that the season is underway, the publicity for Beckham and other MLS players will increase during sweeps.  Beckham already was awarded his first MLS Player of the Week honor, so that certainly did not hurt in keeping his name in the public conscienceness.

You will be seeing even more of Beckham during May Sweeps this year than some of you will care to, but just understand the reason behind it, which is TV wanting to get the biggest sports star on their programs to garner their highest possible ratings.

Who knows, if there is a bit more justice in the world this year than last, maybe the dialogue with him on these shows will increasingly move more toward soccer…as sweeps - and the season itself - wears on.

Beckham himself has been involved with the United Nations the past several years, and in  a move which took place at the beginning of sweeps - but had nothing to do with it - his TV spot for World Malaria Day (Friday, April 25) aired around the world.  As you can imagine, if you’ve been paying any attention at all to what I’ve said here - many TV news outlets included this ad campaign and UN charity in their programming last Friday to boost their ratings and interest in their news - through Beckham and the hot topic itself.

Malaria No More campaign for Nothing but Nets w/David Beckham - WATCH HERE

At the same time, we have a new adidas ad campaign involving Beckham and many others rolling out, and the timing is correlated to the sweeps period in the U.S.

There is an introductory 1-minute spot which you can WATCH HERE

As May Sweeps continues, I will look for some additional examples to share with you…

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2008 at 10:29 pm and is filed under Soccer. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.