Baseball Musings: TV Ratings

October 21, 2008

TV Ratings

Earlier this morning I was chatting with a friend about how Fox probably wanted a Boston-Los Angeles World Series for high ratings. I noted, however, that lots of people watch baseball in Florida on television. You can tell because Rays broadcasts often just get back in time for the first pitch of an inning. The Phillies should also have a pretty wide viewing area, encompassing eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, parts of Maryland and Delaware. I don't think this will be too bad for Fox. On top of that, FishStripes links to this note on highly rated series:

In the past 10 years, the highest-rated Fall Classic was the seven-game Florida Marlins-Cleveland Indians matchup, which averaged a 16.7 rating/29 share. There have only been three others since then to go over 15, most recently the 2004 Series in which Boston ended an 86-year drought to beat the St. Louis Cardinals in four straight.
Even the Red Sox, who are about as close to ratings money as you can get, averaged only a 10.6 rating last year in their four-game sweep of the Colorado Rockies. The New York Yankees averaged a 12.8 in its six-game loss to the Marlins in 2003. The lowest World Series ratings ever came in 2006, when the five-game Cardinals-Tigers series averaged a 10.1/17.

The 1997 series also featured a Florida team not known for turning out crowds. Fans, however, do watch the Marlins on TV. The series featured a team roaring onto the scene after never winning before against a team that had not won a World title in decades. The series was also very tight, with the Marlins and Indians winning alternate games. If the series avoids looking like a sweep fairly early, I can see pretty good ratings for the week.

Posted by David Pinto at 10:55 AM | Broadcasts | TrackBack (0)

Comments

Don't look now, but the Tampa Bay football team just pulled some of the lowest-ever ratings for Sunday Night Football on NBC. Fox is probably expecting an all-time low for the Series, and will be happy if the numbers aren't a complete embarrassment.

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 21, 2008 11:12 AM

By the way, local TV ratings mean little as predictors for national numbers. The Cardinals get some of the best local ratings of any team in baseball, because St. Louis is such a great baseball town. They certainly get much better local ratings than Tampa Bay did this year.

And you saw what happened to the national numbers for the 2006 World Series.

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 21, 2008 11:23 AM

I think ratings will be good, just as you pointed out... we have a historic first timer that's exciting to watch, and a team trying to pull off it's '80-'08 as the only two titles they've achieved in 120+ years. Makes a curious matchup

Posted by: Devon Young at October 21, 2008 11:32 AM

To hardcore baseball fans the Rays may be exciting. To everybody else (a.k.a. the overwhelming majority of people in this country) they're a faceless bunch of unknown players. Longoria's probably the only guy anybody's ever heard of, because he has the same name as that actress.

As I said, let's just hope the numbers aren't completely laughable.

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 21, 2008 11:37 AM

The Google news cache is stuffed with stories expecting record-low numbers for the Series. One tiny counter-indicator: the final game of the ALCS did well on TBS. Only a 7.9 rating, which is hardly gigantic by historic standards but does rank well up there among cable ratings for any baseball game. Thank you, Red Sox.

If the Series goes to seven, Fox may avoid an all-time low. Otherwise, it looks grim.

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 21, 2008 11:48 AM

I'm guessing the bucs game had a record low rating because of game seven being on in the same time slot, so that's probably not much of an indicator for the upcoming series.

Posted by: gino_riccardi at October 21, 2008 02:19 PM

Series ratings have been hitting all-time lows for years now. There was a tiny lift last year because of the Sox. There's no lift in sight this year. Unless the Series proves particularly dramatic, an all-time low is almost a foregone conclusion.

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 21, 2008 02:23 PM

By the way, I don't mean to pick on the Series in particular. Ratings for the NBA and NHL finals have also suffered in recent years, though both turned up last year thanks to higher-profile matchups. Even the Super Bowl doesn't do the near-fifty ratings it once did. (Don't feel bad about it. The game's still in the low forties.)

There's just nothing in the low-profile Rays-Phillies matchup to change the long-term trend. Everything on broadcast network TV does smaller ratings nowadays.

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 21, 2008 02:28 PM

Yeah Casey, I think Fox is going to go with the meme that EVAn LONGORIA will be playing the field (wink, wink, nudge nudge).

Posted by: rbj at October 21, 2008 03:27 PM

"Yeah Casey, I think Fox is going to go with the meme that EVAn LONGORIA will be playing the field (wink, wink, nudge nudge)."

That might be the only chance to get most people interested at all in the Rays.

Posted by: Casey Abell at October 22, 2008 11:36 AM