MLB viewership up double-digits on ESPN, FOX, TBS

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Jon Lewis

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Comments 24

Alessandro says:

1 year ago

Really great news for Baseball and MLB! The numbers are sky-high for today’s TV landscape, and they would be good for everything not named Football. Plain and simple.

Different interpretations here in the comments look pretentious and biased, and makes sincerely my eyes bug out in disbelief.

But it doesn’t matter: attendance is very good, TV viewership is strong and growing, young audiences’ numbers are at their best in recent times (this time it’s about TBS, but in the last two seasons they’ve been up all the way around). Everything Baseball-related, e.g. College Baseball and Softball, seems to thrive slightly.

It’s a shame Manfred looks poorly able to capitalize on the good product at his disposal, especially when it comes to the delicate matter of TV rights.
JEAN H PIERRE says:

1 year ago

The Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Phillies, Cubs and by far the best story the Detroit Tigers are helping Major League Baseball so far this first half of the season. Baseball needs to do a better job during the holidays especially Memorial Day and the 4th of July by putting games on nationally weather FOX or TBS. ESPN can’t do it because they’re airing Wimbledon coverage.
- Rick James Bible Owner says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  For the record, ESPN gave up Memorial Day & Labor Day non-exclusive games a while ago, right? Was it the contract before the contract they just opted-out of?
- ESL says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  Agree. MLB is the only sport that does not have a holiday associated with it. NFL has Thanksgiving (and everything else), NBA has Christmas, and even the NHL has New Year’s Day with the winter classic (hanging on by a thread).. MLB needs to do something with 4th of July. My idea would be to have a morning game starting at 11am et in the nations capital. Put the game on Fox. The Washington Nationals hosting every 4th would become like the Lions hosting on Thanksgiving. Make it an event. Have Hall of Fame players read the Declaration of Independence in front of the Washington monument before the game. Bring in a big celebrity to sing the national anthem. That’s how you market and promote your sport in the national spotlight.
DeArgentina says:

1 year ago

People want to watch the Dodgers, NYY, NYM, Red Sox, Braves, Cubs, Tigers, Cardinals, Giants. Good, historic, or big-market teams. It works in the NFL on SNF or MNF. When there’s an Astros vs. Rangers game on a Sunday or Monday here in Latin America, I don’t sit down and watch it.
- Sean says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  That’s not how it works in the NFL. Chiefs-Bills has been the marquee match up in the past 4 seasons. Lions games drew a lot of casual fans no matter who they were playing, despite them being historical losers and Detroit being a medium market.
  - DeArgentina says:
    
    1 year ago
    
    I understand. The point is that if the Dodgers generate good ratings, ESPN, NBC, or whatever network has the right to demand that they appear more on SNB. Like what’s happening with the Cowboys or the Chiefs right now. I know it’s hard to copy the NFL, given that there are like 15 franchises with a national fanbase, and even the Lions, Browns, Vikings, Jets, and Bills have crazy followings. But MLB has something similar with some franchises like the Cubs or Braves. On SNB, only LAD, NYY, NYM, Braves, Red Sox, and Cubs should play. That would bring in good numbers every Sunday.
Garrett Ruell says:

1 year ago

Jon, would these positive numbers possibly encourage NBC or even potentially ESPN to up their offer just a little bit?

The playoffs also have the potential to be really good for TV ratings with the Yankees, Mets, Dodgers, Phillies, Cubs, Giants and even the Cardinals all in playoff position right now. Even
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  The issue with MLB is not that the games are not worth the money, it’s that MLB gave away exclusive rights to Roku for such a low price that it would be crazy to spend hundreds of millions. So long as exclusive game windows are going for $10 million/year, it will be a touch sell to spend the kind of money MLB would probably want.
  - Garrett Ruell says:
    
    1 year ago
    
    That makes sense, but Sunday morning has to be one of the worst exclusive windows possible, right? But yeah, Manfried was extremely stupid making that deal with Roku
    - Jon Lewis says:
      
      1 year ago
      
      It’s not great, but the worst exclusive window is still better than a local blackout scenario.
George Cooper says:

1 year ago

The best news for MLB is in the last paragraph which is viewership 35 and under is up 70%. I am assuming that the 70% number is for all media partners and not just TBS.
- Jon Lewis says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  No, just TBS.
Dk says:

1 year ago

Great news for baseball especially the younger audience numbers. I hate espns presentation of sports so I’m glad this is the last year of their partnership with espn.
ESL says:

1 year ago

I know there have been a ton of press releases about these numbers for ESPN, but to be honest, for that Sunday Night baseball game between the Dodgers and Yankees, I think 2.73 million is a very disappointing number. Consider you had a World Series Matchup with the 2 best and most popular players in Judge and Ohtani and there was no competition from the NBA or NHL playoffs. And you cant get 3 million viewers? It really shows how bad MLB is on a national stage. I think that is more alarming than something to celebrate.
- Rick James Bible Owner says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  Yankees-Dodgers were also on Fox Saturday (regionally, but most got it over Twins-Mariners), and those numbers were hampered by the blowout nature. It’s still rare to see a 1/162 game get above 2.5 million these days, exclusive or not.
- Garrett Ruell says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  You have to take into account that it’s 1 games of 162. No other sport has even close to that kind of regular season. That number was higher than any single NHL playoff game this year. MLB is doing fine
  - ESL says:
    
    1 year ago
    
    I know its 1 of 162 (or 3 of 162), but this is a rare World Series rematch that features the 2 most popular players. And there was no competition. With some savvy marketing and promotion (i.e. ESPN), this game should have had a huge buzz in the series. But it was treated as just another weekend. Sad that it is being compared to hockey. MLB needs to get better at promoting its game on a national level.
    - Rick James Bible Owner says:
      
      1 year ago
      
      Your last line hit the nail on the head—if the two most popular players in the sport knock heads like this and we’re crowing about these kinds of numbers (which are fine) is the challenge Manfred needs to solve nationally. Manfred and MLB are like someone that inherited a castle with a great master bedroom that now needs a refresh (RSN deals ending) now realizing the rest of the castle is in some state of disrepair (recent national TV deals).
    - Garrett Ruell says:
      
      1 year ago
      
      It’s not being compared to hockey. MLB ratings destroy NHL ratings. My point is that this was the highest rated game on ESPN in 7-8 years. In no way is that bad news for baseball
    - Brian says:
      
      1 year ago
      
      One of the reasons why baseball has less national appeal than it once did is because of the overreliance by national broadcasters on a limited number of “big-market” teams. There was a time when Royals-Cardinals or Twins-Braves drew large audiences because those teams got exposure throughout the season. Two weekends ago, Dodgers-Mets was the matchup on Apple TV+ on Friday night, on FOX on Saturday night and on ESPN on Sunday night. Ditto for Dodgers-Yankees last weekend. Meanwhile, the Tigers could end up in the N.L.C.S. and they might barely have appeared on a FOX or ESPN exclusive national game all year. This really started with the rise of the latter-day Yankees dynasty in the late ’90s, and FOX and ESPN going all in on it, giving every prime-time postseason slot to the Yankees, and going from all 26 teams hosting a Sunday night game on ESPN in 1990 to less than half the teams in the league appearing on Sunday Night Baseball at all. It was short-term thinking, and the long-term bill has come due. Having said that, MLB remains enormously successful at the local level. Its local popularity belies the myth that it is a distant third to the NBA.
- Brian says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  Obviously, I meant to say “A.L.C.S.” in my comment above.
Rick James Bible Owner says:

1 year ago

Put quality games in spots where people can watch them and, against all odds, you can get quality numbers. Even on a ‘dying platform.’ Even if the dry PbPer has a toupee (allegdly) and one of the analysts sounds like the Cookie Monster. Even if no one is gonna ask “Who’s more now?” on some mind-numbing facockta morning show (on either network) the next day. Fancy that. Just one question, Apple doesn’t release any numbers on their Friday Night games? They’ve had some high-wattage games recently as well. They should have some numbers to boast…
- Dave says:
  
  1 year ago
  
  I’m also curious how MLB has done on Apple TV. I would imagine if their $85M/yr investment (Friday nights) were not doing well then they wouldn’t be looking at spending hundreds of millions per year more on the rights that ESPN is giving up/losing. The numbers are probably meeting or exceeding expectations.