From about 1998 to 2001, I used to produce news summaries for the MCIVTA email newsletter. In those days, not so many people were online and an email-based resource was pretty popular. I used to get emails tipping me off about things from quite an interesting range of City fans, and one of them was a guy who then worked in the planning/scheduling department at Sky Sports. He was involved in selecting and scheduling live football, and he told me back in the 1999-2000 season that Sky regarded us as the seventh biggest draw - even though we were in the second tier at the time (IIRC, he never confirmed who the other five were, but I'm guessing United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Newcastle and Spurs). I can date it precisely because I remember him telling me that a City away game on a Tuesday night at Birmingham (which we won 1-0, with a Richard Jobson goal, and Nicky Weaver had a stormer) drew better viewing figures than the nearest Super Sunday game, though that was Boro v. Watford, so hardly the biggest attraction. Even so, he thought that, given the better slot the latter game had and the extra promotional efforts Sky put in with PL fixtures, this was a positive indicator of our strong profile.
Sky will have all the figures at their disposal, of course, and maybe they're right, but I'd nonetheless be surprised if our TV pulling power has slipped now as compared with then.
