National MLB Ratings Off To Slow Start This Season

Major League Baseball's national television ratings are off to a slow start for the first three weeks of the season, but several regional sports networks are showing significant audience growth, according to Nielsen Media Research data.Excluding two games it aired from Japan on ESPN2 that began at 6 a.m. E.T., combined MLB household ratings on ESPN and ESPN2 are down year over year about 10 percent, while average viewers per telecast are down about 6 percent. It's hard to make network-to-network comparisons because this year ESPN carried MLB's opening-night telecast, while last season ESPN2 ran the game. ESPN this season is up 16 percent to 2.5 million viewers per telecast, while ESPN2, excluding the Japan games, is down 21 percent to 1 million.Over three Saturday telecasts, Fox is averaging a 2.3 household rating, down 14 percent, and 3.4 million viewers, down 13 percent, but some of that falloff has to do with matchups. Last season, the third week's game featured the New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox, each of which has a large national following. This year, the comparable Saturday's ratings were down 38 percent.TBS, which is carrying exclusive Sunday afternoon games for the first time, is averaging only a 0.5 household rating and 583,000 viewers the first three weeks.Regionally, YES, the Yankees network, is averaging a 4.9 household rating, up 14 percent. Cumulatively, the 19 regional Fox Sports Networks are flat with a 3.2 rating, with some networks up as much as 74 percent, while others are down as much as 38 percent.

Convergent TV

National MLB Ratings Off To Slow Start This Season

John Consoli

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

John Consoli