Incessant television promotion and two major media markets made for extremely high ratings over the weekend. Yankees/Red Sox drew a 3.2 final rating on FOX, very high for regular season baseball. Thanks to the large rating, “Fox is averaging a 2.7/7 (3.9 million viewers), up 13% over last year’s 2.4/7 after three weeks, making it Fox? best rating after three games since ?02, and the most watched season since ?00.” With the Yankees and Red Sox playing on the network again next week, expect the ratings to remain stellar.
When the same two teams played on ESPN Sunday night, the game drew a 4.0 overnight cable rating, “marking the net?s best rating for an MLB regular-season telecast since a Yankees-Red Sox game in ?04 earned a 4.4.” The game will likely end up beating the competing NBA Playoff broadcasts on TNT, which drew final cable Nielsen ratings of 2.5 and 2.6.
Why are the Yankees and Red Sox such a draw? Credit major markets New York City and Boston, East Coast sports media bias and constant television promotion. Great teams in East Coast cities make for big numbers.
