For all the hype surrounding how well baseball has been doing this season, and with the huge ratings Yankees/Red Sox games have been garnering, it is interesting to note that ratings for Major League Baseball games on FOX and ESPN are either flat or up only slightly from last year. Ratings for ESPN games are up 7% from 1.4 last year to 1.5 this year, while FOX is averaging a 2.5 rating — even with last year’s numbers.
While the numbers for FOX and ESPN overall are decent, though relatively unimpressive, one particular weekly broadcast is drawing big increases over last year.
Sunday Night Baseball is doing extremely well for ESPN; the series is averaging a 2.4 cable rating, up 26% from last year. To put in perspective how impressive a rating that is, TNT averaged a 2.3 cable rating for first round NBA Playoff games this season. Most of the ratings increase can be attributed to the two Yankees/Red Sox games ESPN aired, both of which drew cable ratings of 4.2 — meaning that one can expect those two teams to be thrust into the limelight even more next season, if that is even possible.
With regular season numbers up from last year, one would expect ratings for All Star events to trend up as well. That was not the case for last night’s Home Run Derby, which fell 2% from a 5.1 cable rating last year to a 5.0 cable rating this year. Despite a year-to-year decline, the 5.0 cable rating makes the Derby the fourth highest rated sporting event on cable this year, behind Games 5 and 6 of the NBA’s Eastern Conference Finals and the NBA All Star Game.
