ESPN generated modest gains for coverage of the 2014 Major League Baseball regular season.
Regular season MLB telecasts averaged 1.13 million viewers on ESPN and ESPN2, up 4% from last year (1.09M) and up 9% from 2012 (1.04M). Gains for Monday and Wednesday night games offset a slight decline for Sunday Night Baseball.
Monday Night Baseball averaged 834,000 viewers, up 2% from 820,000 last year. Wednesday Night Baseball was less of a draw with 644,000, but that marked a 22% increase from last year’s 544,000.
Both windows benefited from the new MLB TV deal, which reduced the number of blackouts for ESPN games.
Sunday Night Baseball, which as always aired exclusively on ESPN, averaged 1.81 million viewers — easily the most-watched baseball package on ESPN, but down 2% from last year’s 1.85 million. SNB’s 1.2 U.S. rating was even with last year.
Despite the lower numbers, SNB generated the top baseball audience of the season for Rangers/Angels on June 22. Benefiting from a USA World Cup lead-in, the game drew 2.9 million viewers.
(Season avg. from ESPN, ESPN Media Zone)
