Ratings for Major League Baseball on TBS telecasts

2007

National League Wild Card tiebreaker

*The NL Tiebreaker between San Diego and Colorado had a 2.9 rating with 3.9 million viewers. [ [http://www.mediaweek.com/mw/news/networktv/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003650131 mediaweek.com] ]

Division Series

Ratings for TBS' first-round playoff games, despite three of those four series ending in less-than-dramatic sweeps, finished up 18% over 2006's first-round coverage on FOX and ESPN. Since FOX is in about 16 million more TV households than TBS and ESPN also put its coverage in 2006 on local broadcast stations in the TV markets with teams participating in the games — something TBS did not — those first-round TBS ratings countered the cable-TV-will-always-produce-smaller-audiences argument.

*The opening tripleheader of Division Series games from Wednesday (October 3) generated an average of 4.54 million viewers on TBS, slightly above the 4.48 million from 2006 for two games carried on the comparable day on ESPN and one by FOX [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/05/sports/baseball/05sandomir.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&adxnnlx=1191729703-/feY0Jhx2lOPp9hZK/AvZg&oref=slogin RATINGS ARE UP The opening tripleheader of division-series games Wednesday generated an average of 4.54 million viewers on TBS, slightly above the 4.48 million last year for two games carried on the comparable day on ESPN and one by Fox.] ] .

*Game 1 of the Colorado Rockies/Philadelphia Phillies series received a 2.6 rating and 3.17 million viewers (exceeding the previous year's Game 1 audience on ESPN by 78 percent) [ [http://mlb.mlb.com/news/press_releases/press_release.jsp?ymd=20071004&content_id=2249958&vkey=pr_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb mlb.com/news/press releases] ]

*Game 1 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim/Boston Red Sox series received a 4.3 rating and an average of 5.46 million viewers

*Game 1 of the Chicago Cubs/Arizona Diamondbacks series received a 4.0 rating and an average audience of 5.13 million viewers.2007 MLB Division Series ratings.coverage area (cable) ratings marked by asterisk (*)

*Wednesday, October 3
**2.6, 3.2 mil viewers: Rockies/Phillies Game 1 (3:00 PM TBS)
**3.7, 5.5 mil viewers: Angels/Red Sox Game 1 (6:30 PM TBS)
**3.4, 5.1 mil viewers: Cubs/Diamondbacks Game 1 (10:00 PM TBS)

*Thursday, October 4
**N/A, 3.3 mil viewers: Rockies/Phillies Game 2 (3:00 PM TBS)
**4.5, 6.7 mil viewers: Yankees/Indians Game 1 (6:30 PM TBS)
**2.6, 3.7 mil viewers: Cubs/Diamondbacks Game 2 (10:00 PM TBS)

*Friday, October 5
**4.9, 7.6 mil viewers: Yankees/Indians Game 2 (5:00 PM TBS)
**4.2, 6.4 mil viewers: Angels/Red Sox Game 2 (8:30 PM TBS)

*Saturday, October 6
**3.0, 4.7 mil viewers: Diamondbacks/Cubs Game 3 (6:00 PM TBS)
**2.8, 4.5 mil viewers: Phillies/Rockies Game 3 (9:30 PM TBS)

*Sunday, October 7
**2.8, 4.2 mil viewers: Red Sox/Angels Game 3 (3:00 PM TBS)
**5.4, 8.5 mil viewers: Indians/Yankees Game 3 (6:30 PM TBS)

*Monday, October 8
**7.0*, 9.2 mil viewers: Indians/Yankees Game 4 (7:30 PM TBS) Highest rated cable baseball game

National League Championship Series

The first three games of the NLCS [ [http://curtsmith.mlblogs.com/archives/2007/10/tv_ratings_sink.html "Ratings Sink Because Product Stinks"] ] averaged a 3.5 household rating and 4.5 million viewers [ [http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6491513.html Mid-sized Market Matchup Fall Below Viewership For Network's Division Series Coverage] ] . Those numbers fell short of the 4.4 household average and 5.7 million viewers the network averaged for the 13 games it covered during the four Division series, which included games from the top four media markets – New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia, as well as No. 7 Boston.

TBS' NLCS [ [http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/hiestand-tv/2007-10-16-TBS-LCS-ratings_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip TBS can blame teams for LCS ratings decline] ] games averaged 26.4% of TV households in Denver and 13.6% in Phoenix. That's down from 2006's New York Mets-St. Louis Cardinals NLCS, which drew 31.3% in St. Louis and 15.8% in New York, which has more than twice as many households as Phoenix and Denver combined.

The Colorado Rockies-Arizona Diamondbacks games [ [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/17/sports/baseball/17sandomir.html?_r=1&oref=slogin Viewer Up! Not When It Comes to the N.L.C.S.] ] averaged only 4.3 million viewers — fewer than the season average for FOX’s "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?" — and many fewer than the 10.5 million from 2006 for the Mets-Cardinals series. Games 2 and 4 of the 2007 NLCS, which started after 10 p.m. Eastern Time, produced viewership of 3.3 million and 3.8 million.

2008

Division Series

TBS' 2008 Division Series coverage propelled the network to its first prime time weekly ratings win of 2008 [ [http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/MLBonTV/message/12122 News Networks Jump Up Behind VP Debate] ] . TBS averaged a 3.5 household rating during the week of September 29 though October 5. TBS claimed the eighth and 10th cable slots via their October 5, Game 3 coverage of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim-Boston Red Sox series, and its Game 1 coverage of the Los Angeles Dodgers-Chicago Cubs series on October 1. Unfortunately for TBS, this also marked a 20% decline [ [http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6602394.html? TBS Sees MLB's Division Series Audience Decline] ] from 2007's Division Series marks on TBS.

References

External links

* [http://blogs.courant.com/roger_catlin_tv_eye/2007/10/baseball-scores.html Baseball Scores for TBS]
* [http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com/search/label/MLB Sports Media Watch]