Last week on the off day between Games 2 and 3 of the World Series, there was an article in the New York Times lamenting the "death" of baseball. They do this every year, using the declining ratings for the World Series as their evidence. "Only" 12.2 million people watched Game 1. And you know what? MLB and FOX don't really care.
We're long past the days where the World Series is going to pull in a 20-plus rating simply for being on. That's true of all TV. Especially broadcast TV. Besides, ratings don't tell the whole story anymore. You can watch the game on any number of mobile devices, and this year was the first time that MLB.tv subscribers were able to watch the World Series on their computers. These viewers aren't taken into account. Neither are the ones who find some sort of pirated stream and watch illegally.
People have a lot more options. FOX knows this. Yet they just paid more (by a significant amount) for rights to the World Series until 2021 than in their previous contract that expired last season. Why do you think they willingly moved pretty much all of their Division Series and LCS games to the fledgling Fox Sports 1? Because they'd love to get a 12.2 rating on Fox Sports 1. And if they got that rating on cable, nobody would be saying anything about it. (It also gave them a chance to double-dip and avoid pissing off the fans of their primetime shows that would otherwise have been preempted by baseball.)
These same critics say the same thing about the All*Star Game, which FOX and MLB make a point to put on the broadcast network even in this new cable-heavy contract. I also think it's important to point out that the MLB All*Star Game is the only one of the four that isn't on cable, and that it's still one of the highest-rated events of the summer.
But the critics are quick to note that World Series ratings have been on the decline since the last time the Royals were there, when an average of 34.5 million viewers watched in 1985. (The all-time high was 44 million for Dodgers-Yankees in 1978, when there were about three viewing options for the American public in primetime.) They're also quick to point out that the past nine years have produced the eight least-watched World Series in history. Ironically, MLB moved from a Saturday start to a midweek start in 2007 because they thought more people would watch during the week, so they got rid of that second weekend.
Well, in the five years from 2004-08, the World Series never lasted longer than five games. This is only the fourth time since 2003 that there's even been a Game 6, and Cardinals-Rangers in 2011 was the only seven-game series in that span. Ratings generally get better as the series goes on, as evidence by the 25 million viewers for Game 7 in 2011. If the series isn't competitive, there's little reason to watch.
And, this might not be a fair point to make, but this World Series involves the Kansas City Royals. They're a great story, and America has certainly adopted the Royals. But that doesn't change the fact that Kansas City isn't a major market. In fact, it's the second-smallest in the Majors. The World Series ratings are phenomenal in Kansas City, but 60 percent of the TVs in Kansas City is nowhere close to 60 percent of the TVs in LA. (Why do you think the only World Series in the last nine years not in the bottom eight all-time was Yankees-Phillies in 2009?) Bigger markets drive ratings, and, no offense to the Royals, but casual fans are more likely to tune in when one of the marquee teams is playing.
It's also unfair to compare the World Series ratings to the behemoth that is the NFL. NBC's Sunday Night Football is the highest-rated "show" in all of primetime. Football took over as America's favorite sport to watch on TV a long time ago. Everyone knows this. So comparing baseball's ratings to football's is apples and oranges. It's not like comparing two TV shows that air at the same time. The World Series isn't in danger of being cancelled by FOX because more people watched the football game on Sunday night.
Sunday night was the only time in the entire series that the World Series was scheduled to go head-to-head against the NFL. They moved the start from Wednesday to Tuesday so that Thursday would be the off day and they wouldn't have to go against Thursday Night Football. There are two reasons for this. First, they know they're not going to compete with football. But that also meant people wouldn't have to choose between the two.
Another comparison made in the New York Times article was to the World Cup this past summer. The rating for the USA-Portugal game was roughly 25 million, or, twice the rating for Game 1 of the World Series. Again, it's apples and oranges. That game aired against very little competition on a Sunday afternoon in the summer. (Why do you think NBC's Olympic ratings are always so high?) The World Series airs in primetime against first-run scripted programming on weeknights in October.
I also hate it when people blame the 8:00 start times for the World Series' ratings. "How are kids supposed to watch when the games end at midnight?," is the argument. Well, how early do you want them to start? Keep in mind, the West Coast is three hours behind, so it's 5:00 there. And FOX has responded to that criticism. They used to come on the air at 8 and start the game at 8:30. Now they come on at 7:30 and the game starts at 8. That means it's over at 11:15-11:30. Too late? I don't think so.
For those people that want an afternoon game, I've got news for you. It ain't gonna happen! You're not having an afternoon game during the week when people are at work, you can't do Sunday afternoon because of the NFL, and Saturday afternoons are college football. In fact, until this year, FOX always had an NFL doubleheader on the Sunday of the World Series, so that game has to start later than the others because they have to wait until football is over. (It wasn't even a FOX doubleheader this week and Eagles-Cardinals still ran until 7:45, with postgame going right into baseball coverage.)
Trying to appease people, they tried an early start for the Saturday game in 2010, which was Game 3. Pregame started at 6:30 and first pitch was a little after 7. And you know what? The ratings were even worse! So much for that idea. The experiment lasted a total of one year. In 2011, they moved to the 7:30 pregame/8:00 start for all games. (The only exceptions are that Saturday night might be 7:00/7:30, and Sunday might be later because of football.)
Fewer people are watching baseball. So what? Those that want to still are. And those millions have been seeing a pretty good series.
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