More Advertisers Catch Baseball Fever

NEW YORK Advertisers are flocking to Major League Baseball telecasts this season, with national sales on ESPN and the FSN regional sports networks running significantly ahead of a year ago. "Baseball has got some juice now," said Ed Erhardt, president of ESPN/ABC Sports Customer Marketing & Sales. "It's the strongest baseball marketplace I've seen in the past five years." New ESPN sponsors include Home Depot, General Motors and Taco Bell, while Anheuser-Busch has significantly increased its third-quarter commitment.Bill McOwen, executive vice president, national broadcast for Havas-owned MPG said baseball is one of the few sports where the ratings have actually climbed over the last few years. He also said baseball is one of the most "marketer-friendly" sports. "There are still lots of enhancements and added value things that you can achieve that a lot of the other sports have clamped down on," he said.Sales for Fox broadcast network's weekly Saturday afternoon national telecast are about even with last year, but games do not start airing until May 21, and sales are expected to pick up within the next month as the network begins a push to start selling its October post-season prime-time inventory in conjunction with its regular season games.While Erhardt would not comment on sellout levels, sources said regular-season telecasts, which air three nights a week on ESPN and ESPN2, are sold out at more than a 90 percent level, far ahead of last season. At the FSN, which also sells ad inventory for Yankees Entertainment & Sports (YES) Network, sellout levels are between 80 percent and into the low 90s, depending on the team, said Kyle Sherman, executive vp of national ad sales for FSN regional sports networks. Most nets are double-digit teens ahead of last year's sellout levels, he said, adding that CPMs are also up. Sherman is in charge of selling spots to national advertisers who want regional exposure.Major League Baseball can be credited for doing a good job recruiting additional official sponsors to the game. Within the past month, Home Depot, General Mills' Wheaties, General Motors and delivery service DHL have signed on as sponsors, which among other investments include significant number of on-air commercials. What has also proven an effective tool for advertisers is the virtual, on-screen signage that appears during telecasts on the wall behind home plate, which is changed every half inning or inning. That signage is sold by MLB and the individual networks, and the revenue is shared.XM Satellite Radio, Fidelity Investments, Red Roof Inns, Valero Energy Corp., Coor's and Qwest Communications are new national advertisers in the FSN telecasts. Tim Brosnan, executive vp of business at MLB, said advertisers are being drawn to baseball telecasts based on strong post-season ratings last year, and because they realize that fan interest is still there, in spite of the steroid scandal. "This season [the teams] had record advance-ticket sales—up 6.5 percent over last year. And licensed merchandise sales were up 100 percent over last year," Brosnan said. "All of the advertisers who placed their bets on the first week of the season were winners. If you cumed the rating of the opening night Yankees-Red Sox game that aired on both ESPN and the regional sports networks in those markets, the game had a 4.5 cable rating."What has also helped national baseball ad sales has been the canceled National Hockey League season. "If you take the Stanley Cup playoffs out of April, May and June, it leaves a lot of ratings points to make up," said Ray Warren, managing director at OMD. "There are also fewer spring rating points for the NBA, which is mostly on cable now. So it seems like it would be hard for baseball not to succeed."Buyers also said the steroid issue is not turning marketers off to the sport and likely won't unless it becomes a broader problem in the future. "I don't think you'd want to go out and sponsor Barry Bonds or Jason Giambi," said Mike Law, associate director, at Aegis Group's Carat. "But I think being associated with baseball isn't going to tarnish anybody's image."

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More Advertisers Catch Baseball Fever

John Consoli

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