With FOX little more than a week away from airing regular season baseball in primetime for just the third time ever, a report has the network considering a more permanent change for next season.
Regular season baseball coverage on FOX “might largely migrate to prime time” next season, reports USA Today. A full-time shift to primetime could depend on the ratings for this year’s primetime telecasts on FOX, which will air May 22 and June 26.
If FOX does indeed move additional MLB coverage to primetime, the telecasts would feature substantially more regionalized games, in a move reminiscent of the failed The Baseball Network.
FOX generally airs three games per week regionally, though the network’s first primetime telecast this season will feature four.
According to USA Today, FOX Sports President Ed Goren “suggests that expanding regionalized coverage … to, say, seven simultaneously played games” could help increase lagging television ratings.
Precedent would seem to back that up. During the 1994 and 1995 seasons, ABC and NBC aired significant regional coverage (as many as 14 games) in primetime under The Baseball Network umbrella.
Those telecasts averaged ratings of 6.2 (1994) and 5.8 (1995) — substantially higher than the 3.8 CBS averaged in ’93 and the 2.7 FOX averaged in ’96.
(USA Today; 1993-96 data from Los Angeles Times)
