TV Sports Ratings

As expected, the 2008 Fall Classic ended up as the lowest rated on record.  It’s easy to blame the weather-related delays for these levels, but this was pacing as the least-watched ever before the rain wreaked havoc.

Also, this was the oldest skewing World Series ever - really a disaster for FOX and a harbinger of bad things to come for MLB.

Game 3 (Saturday 9:57p-1:47a; start delayed by weather) averaged a 4.1 in M18-49, a 3.5 in M18-34 and an average audience of 9.7 million viewers.

This is the lowest-rated and least-watched World Series game on record.

Game 4 (Sunday 8:27-11:30p) bounced back to a 6.6 rating in M18-49, a 5.7 in M18-34 and an average audience of 15.3 million viewers.

Through 4 games, the 2008 World Series is averaging a 5.5 in M18-49, a 4.6 in M18-34 and an average audience of 12.9 million viewers.

Compared to the 2007 World Series through 4 games (full series), FOX is down 21% in M18-49, 21% in M18-34 and 27% in average audience.

It seems certain that this will finish as the lowest rated World Series on record.

Also, this was the first time that Game 2 had a smaller audience than Game 1 since 1998 (SD at NYY; aired on a Sunday).  In that Game 2, the Yankees were up 7-0 by the third inning.

Through 2 games, this is on pace to be the lowest rated World Series ever  (an honor currently held by the 2006 matchup of STL/DET).  At this point, it is -12% behind the 2006 series in average audience and -6% in M18-49.

Game #1 of Phillies/Rays narrowly avoided being the least-watched on record (thanks to the anemic numbers from Cards/Tigers in 2006).

The audience (14.6 million) was down -12% vs. last year, while M18-49 (6.4 rating) were down -14% and M18-34 (5.2) dropped by -19%.

 Men 35+ accounted for a whopping 48% of the audience - the highest percentage on record

Airing against the first Sunday of the Olympics, Sunday Night Baseball put up below average numbers across the board.

Season to date, the only game Joe Morgan sees are down -5% in demos vs. last year and virtually flat in average audience. 

You’ve all probably read stories about the impressive ratings for the Opening Ceremonies - stories based on metered market ratings.  Well, we now have official national numbers for Friday night’s coverage and some idea of why these numbers were so much above the 2004 and 2000 games.

As per NBC, the rated portion of the telecast aired from 8-11:19p.  However, we have confirmed that local news had a start time of 12:04a, meaning that a full 45 (lower-rated) minutes were removed from the nationally rated portion.  This can legitimately be done, given the proper circumstances, but apparently has not been the practice in prior years (Athens ended at 11:49p, Atlanta at 12:38a) - at least not to this degree.

Using NBC’s timings, the telecast had a 10.3 in P18-49, a 9.4 in M18-49 and 34.9 million viewers.  The audience was 44% male with a median age of 50 years.  W50+ (21.4 rating) were the strongest demo - accounting for nearly 1/3 of viewers.  Conversely, M12-34 made up just 10% of viewers.

Using some crude arithmetic, it appears as these numbers are about +5-7% higher in most demos than they would have been with a “proper” 12a end time.  While these are still strong ratings and dwarf those of Athens, it would put them virtually flat with Sydney.

NBC is clearly going to use every trick in the book to pump up these numbers and you’re bound to see some very impressive cross-platform viewership numbers being thrown around.  But, when it comes to primetime broadcast coverage, this is a relatively huge, but still older and female skewing property.

Attached is a track of the last four Summer Games Opening Ceremonies

Through 19 telecasts, the TBS Sunday MLB game is averaging a .36 rating in Men 18-49, a .35 in Men 18-34 and an average audience of 675,000 viewers.

In comparison, Braves games on Sundays during the 2007 season (thru the end of July) averaged a .47 in Men 18-49, a .47 in Men 18-34 and 982,000 viewers.

So, this non-exclusive window not only falls short of what Braves games used to do, but it fares worse than what a movie or sitcom repeats would do.

Given their investment in post-season rights, it makes sense for TBS to have some sort of MLB Regular Season presence.  But, clearly, most of the viewers who watched the Braves last year are….well, they are probably watching the Braves (or the Cubs on WGN).  And in this time slot, facing so much local baseball competition, i don’t know who would watch this game in the early season.

I don’t know what sort of flexibility they have in terms of scheduling, but if they can cherry-pick some key late season games it’s a different story.  It might have made more sense to kick off their coverage post-All-Star break.    We shall see.

Seemingly, even an act of God will not deter anti-Morganites from flocking to a Joe-free telecast.  Despite starting 58 minutes late due to a rain delay and ending just before midnight, Yanks/Sox put up the largest average audience for a Sunday night game this season.

Season-to-date, the only games Joe Morgan sees (save one) are down slightly in male demos and virtually flat in average audience.

Over the 17 FOX MLB Saturday windows this season, just 4 have had a higher Male 18-49 rating than the same week in 2007.  Of these 4, Yankees/Red Sox have been the 2008 game in 3 of the windows.

Season-to-date, FOX Saturday MLB is down 19% in Men 18-49, 14% in Men 18-34 and 12% in P2+.

FOX pulled a fast one here, using only the first nine innings of the 15 inning marathon for the telecast rating.  It’s not uncommon to cut off the national rating at the time of the last national commercial, but this is an abuse of the rule.  As such, the data is posted below but without any analysis.

(EDIT:  upon further investigation, they used the same procedure in 2002 - the infamous tie game in Milwaukee.  Regardless, it is misleading.  They don’t do it for regular season or post-season games and they don’t do it for any other sport.)