Kings League has not transferred its ratings success from Twitch to television

The Kings League, along with the Queens League, is one of the most ambitious projects of the content production duo Gerard Piqué and Ibai Llanos . After filling Barcelona's Camp Nou for the first season's final, the move to television for subsequent seasons was a logical step, given the increasing demand for live content to boost viewership.

But the reality is that, after having gone to Channel Four, it has not been at all something that even maintained the average share of the chain. What's more, even something that we don't have in mind as something that is seen a lot, the Saber y Ganar contest; It has gotten more viewers. Is that why Ibai should produce a Saber y Ganar? No, it's just that the King's League hasn't been able to maintain the audience it's had on Twitch.

According to data from the FormulaTV portal, 382.000 viewers watched the first day of the Kings League, with the second having dropped to 259.000. That's more than 120.000 viewers less, a drop of a third of an already low audience.

What has happened to the Kings League and Queens League audience?

Let's try to conduct a calm analysis, without resorting to the simplistic notion that " what works on the internet doesn't work on television ." While that's a possible conclusion, it would be an extremely simplistic and defeatist analysis, implying that nothing can be done. Many factors have undoubtedly contributed to the decline in Kings League viewership, even though the Queens League hasn't experienced a significant drop in viewership.

The controversial salaries of the players

In recent interviews, it has been stated and leaked that players in the King's League and Queen's League earn around 75 euros per game. While receiving money for a shortened football match isn't inherently bad, it's far too little to even make a living from it on the minimum wage . That would amount to about 300 euros a month, which is less than a third of the Spanish minimum wage.

That could have affected the audiences, because many people would not want to support a product that is broadcast on international television that does not allow players to be able to dedicate themselves to it. It is possible that changing the remuneration is being considered, but for now nothing is known and there is no official guide.

The sport is not of enough quality to follow it

When something is broadcast on national television, a minimum level of quality is expected . A league made up of professional players who haven't played in the top division for a long time, along with streamers who haven't had time to train together as a team due to the demands of Twitch, may have seemed like a good concept on paper, but the final quality of the football shown falls short of what one would expect from a national television broadcast.

Twitch offers the advantage of a more private environment. And the final at Camp Nou was a special event, not a recurring event broadcast to the general public. Many people likely watched the earlier matches and realized that the excitement and promise of Gerard Piqué's league campaign didn't compensate for a level of football that wasn't up to the standard required to follow week after week.

Difficult rules to follow for those who have barely tuned in

We imagine that, if you have followed the Queens League or the Kings League in the first split, you are already used to the rules that, according to Piqué, are to attract young people to the sport. But for many who are used to traditional soccer, both rule changes and additions to a product they've just watched on television are difficult to follow without a prior learning session on the rules.

The image of the Spanish streamers participating in the Kings League in one of the worst moments

For many adults, outside of Ibai Llanos, streamers carry a social stigma. It stands out from them that many have taken advantage of their position of having a particularly well-paid job and being able to work from anywhere in the world, to change their tax residence to Andorra to pay less taxes. Added to this is the fact that some have actively promoted betting houses, slots or game lootboxes, elements that worry many parents and adults about their influence on millions of young people who could end up becoming gamblers.

Very surely, many people do not want to see a project that supports and gives a platform to people who promote bookmakers, or people who send a speech not to contribute and seek to avoid tax obligations that are only available to the wealthiest.

A doomed television schedule

This isn't so much a problem with the Kings League and Queens League product, but XNUMXpm on a Saturday or Sunday is not a given time to watch live TV, unless it's a special event. Traditionally, the latest afternoon movies or procedural police series are usually broadcast at that time.

Already seen on Twitch and Youtube

Since Cuatro is interested in the direct audience that watches it on television, it is possible that it is not liking that both sports leagues are being broadcast at the same time on the Twitch and Yotube channels of the streamers involved. Very surely the viewing figures on Twitch and YouTube are much more positive, but for a traditional linear television like Cuatro, it is interesting that they are seen through audimeters to recover their investment in advertising.

Many viewers may have wanted to opt to watch it on Twitch or Youtube. In this case, Cuatro would be doing them a favor by diverting viewers from the traditional channel to the Internet.

It is too new and not very local for people to have a feeling of representation by the teams

The followers of a first division, second division or regional football team represent a basic tribal feeling of feeling towards a group and some values. Real Madrid, Fútbol Club Barcelona, ​​Celta de Vigo… Even teams like Leganés are a team that is the pride of a territory. That is why we are happy to see the Spanish succeed in the Olympics but we do not follow local athletics. In the Queens and Kings League there are teams named after cities, but there are few of them.

In addition, in the short time that they have existed, it has hardly been possible to generate stories and rivalries in a natural way, such as that a certain team has not been able to beat others, nor revenge by landslides... These little stories that are created and generated from Naturally they make fans have a certain attachment to watching sports stories unfold, something that many viewers will not know.

In the end, many spectators are not interested in cheering for any team.

Neither the public nor television are going to give the Kings League time to mature

The story of a new sports league promising more relaxed rules, shorter games, and more exciting elements is not new. Vince McMahon and NBC together created the XFL football league in early 2001 , which shared several of the problems that plagued the Queens and Kings League as a television product, and made very similar promises of attracting an audience that the NFL failed to reach.

In the case of the XFL, such as the Queens and Kings League, it is seen that people are not giving it the necessary time to mature as a television product. Whether as a development league or so that older footballers can play without the game doing so much damage to their bodies, Piqué's Kings League has potential as a secondary product and as a companion to Liga BBVA.

It's still unclear whether it will disappear from Cuatro's broadcast schedule, or if changes will be made at the network's insistence, such as reducing the number of additional rules compared to traditional football. Perhaps they'll rely less on Twitch streamers to attract a television audience. But given that it's in a time slot that would otherwise be occupied by movies or European series, Cuatro has little to lose by leaving both football leagues, aimed at young viewers, in that position on the schedule.