08-03-2021, 08:52 AM
The idea that Cincinnati is a terribly small market size in terms of television simply isn't true.
The networks and the NFL uses a radius that extends far beyond the city limits to calculate this. You can't just look at the city's population to say we're "small market". Our actual market size is over 4 times the size of the City of Cincinnati. It brings in viewers all the from Lexington to Dayton and Columbus, and it extends to Indiana.
Another thing to consider is the amount of households in a given market who tune into the games. I wish I could find the links to support this, but Cincinnati often ranks #1 in percentage of households tuning into the games. You can see this on display not only for the Bengals but even for a team like the Bearcats. There's been numerous articles written recently about conference expansion, which included television details. The amount of people tuning into UC games vs. the population here is incredibly high compared to other potential schools looking to move conferences.
Put very simply: Imagine Cincinnati's market size being 2 million, which is obviously not near the top. And imagine Los Angeles market size being over 5 million which is near the top. If you take just those two figures it looks like we're in big, big trouble. Now imagine 50% of households in Cincinnati tuning into the game whereas only 25% of Los Angeles does. That changes things a bit.
(Note: I pulled these numbers from my head; they're not meant to be accurate. It's just as an example.)
The truth is, while Cincinnati's market size isn't huge it's also not at the very bottom either. There's a number of teams below us. And it's also true that our households routinely outpace most of the league in percentage of viewership. When you couple these two things together, if market size and ratings are driving teams to move then the NFL is going to pressure a number of teams before they pressure us.
tldr; The idea that the NFL is pressuring teams like Cincinnati to move is ridiculous. If for some reason the Bengals did move it would have to be for something else. Market size would not drive this.
The networks and the NFL uses a radius that extends far beyond the city limits to calculate this. You can't just look at the city's population to say we're "small market". Our actual market size is over 4 times the size of the City of Cincinnati. It brings in viewers all the from Lexington to Dayton and Columbus, and it extends to Indiana.
Another thing to consider is the amount of households in a given market who tune into the games. I wish I could find the links to support this, but Cincinnati often ranks #1 in percentage of households tuning into the games. You can see this on display not only for the Bengals but even for a team like the Bearcats. There's been numerous articles written recently about conference expansion, which included television details. The amount of people tuning into UC games vs. the population here is incredibly high compared to other potential schools looking to move conferences.
Put very simply: Imagine Cincinnati's market size being 2 million, which is obviously not near the top. And imagine Los Angeles market size being over 5 million which is near the top. If you take just those two figures it looks like we're in big, big trouble. Now imagine 50% of households in Cincinnati tuning into the game whereas only 25% of Los Angeles does. That changes things a bit.
(Note: I pulled these numbers from my head; they're not meant to be accurate. It's just as an example.)
The truth is, while Cincinnati's market size isn't huge it's also not at the very bottom either. There's a number of teams below us. And it's also true that our households routinely outpace most of the league in percentage of viewership. When you couple these two things together, if market size and ratings are driving teams to move then the NFL is going to pressure a number of teams before they pressure us.
tldr; The idea that the NFL is pressuring teams like Cincinnati to move is ridiculous. If for some reason the Bengals did move it would have to be for something else. Market size would not drive this.
