The Vanishing ratings of postseason baseball

[Deberg_1990]

Wow, incredible how popular MLB was back in the 70s and 80s




By RICHARD SANDOMIR

The 1980 World Series was notable for at least three things. To start, the Philadelphia Phillies won their first World Series. Second, the Kansas City Royals played in their first one.

And third, together the Phillies and the Royals produced the most-watched game in World Series history: 54.9 million viewers saw Game 6.

Now, as the Royals await their World Series opener against the San Francisco Giants, they should not anticipate 55 million people tuning in, regardless of the interest generated by their 29-year postseason exile and eight consecutive postseason wins this year. Perhaps 15 million will watch. A decade, after all, has passed since the audience topped 20 million.

What has happened in the past 34 years is familiar: Prime-time viewing has eroded on broadcast television for virtually everything but the N.F.L. as the thousand-channel cable universe has lured viewers with options that were unimaginable when the journey around the TV dial involved only three networks and a few local, independent stations.


Other entertainment options — the web, video games, apps and streaming — combined with the aging of baseball’s audience and the crawling pace of the game, have not been kind to the sport.

But in the 1970s and ’80s, viewership was regularly stunning, reflecting the size of broadcast audiences. The 1980 World Series averaged 42.3 million viewers.

Two years later, when the Cardinals played the Milwaukee Brewers in a seven-game series, one game drew 48.9 million viewers and another 49.9 million. In 1985, Game 7 of the Royals-Cardinals series had an audience of 45 million.

The 1980 Series was tightly played through five games, and with the Phillies leading, three games to two, anticipation was high for either the Phillies to clinch or the Royals to survive and force a seventh game.


Three future Hall of Famers were playing: Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton and George Brett. Pete Rose, who would become baseball’s career leader in hits in 1985, was the Phillies’ first baseman.

And there was still something special about watching the World Series. The glut of local and national games was years away. There were no interleague games or wild-card playoffs.

The league championship series would remain best-of-five affairs until 1985. Division series were still far off.

And all a viewer needed to know was that NBC and ABC were taking turns broadcasting the L.C.S. and the World Series.

This postseason, more than ever, underscores cable’s dominance. From the wild card to the World Series, TBS, Fox Sports 1, ESPN and MLB Network have each had pieces, requiring a navigation at my home from Channel 8 to 400 to 28 to 306. The only broadcaster involved is Fox. In this shifting sports business landscape, the money that Major League Baseball can amass from selling rights to multiple cable networks trumps the convenience of remote-armed fans — or even their ability to have access to some channels. With that in mind, there are a few points worth making:

■ Fox’s postseason strategy changed this season with the start of its new M.L.B. deal and the availability of Fox Sports 1, its cable network. This year, up to five N.L.C.S. games were scheduled for Fox Sports 1, with two on Fox, whereas in past seasons, Fox routinely broadcast all its L.C.S. games. After Game 4 of the Giants-Cardinals series on Wednesday generated 5.1 million viewers, Fox Sports 1 declared in a news release that it was the most-watched telecast in Fox Sports 1 history, but Fox’s broadcast of Game 4 of the A.L.C.S. last year was seen by 8.1 million. Fox Sports 1 reaches about 85 million TV households, nearly 30 million fewer than Fox the broadcast network does. Do those viewership figures represent greater fan affinity for the Detroit Tigers and the Boston Red Sox, or are they the expected result of a broadcast-to-cable shift?

Fox Sports 1 now labels itself “America’s fastest growing network.” But is what’s good for Fox Sports 1 good for viewers?

■ As it has since 2012, the MLB Network aired two division series games. Under its new contract, Fox sold the games to M.L.B.’s cable network, which is in about 70 million households — great for a league-owned network but not as widely distributed as TBS or Fox Sports 1. When MLB Network carried Game 2 of the Cardinals-Dodgers division series, it drew 1.77 million viewers; the previous game in the series, on Fox Sports 1, attracted 3.6 million. Similarly, 1.84 million tuned in for Game 3 of the Nationals-Giants series on MLB Network; almost twice as many watched Game 2 on Fox Sports 1.

Cable networks, with revenue streams from advertisers and subscribers, can satisfy themselves with smaller audiences than broadcasters. They covet postseason games, and M.L.B. knows that it would not get the billions of dollars it has received if cable networks were given nothing but regular-season games. But beware of what you ask for. TBS increased its annual payment to baseball to $325 million this season from $150 million and saw sweeps in two division series and the A.L.C.S. That is a formula for substantial losses at a time when its parent company, Time Warner, is laying off employees and cutting costs.

The cabling of baseball’s postseason recalls a kerfuffle in 1996 when Don Ohlmeyer, then NBC’s head of West Coast operations, was irked at the network’s depressing performance in the division series and the L.C.S. Those series, each starring the Yankees, averaged 9.9 million and 11.2 million viewers, not enough for Ohlmeyer when NBC was No. 1 in prime time with programs like “Seinfeld.” Ohlmeyer wanted NBC to get out of the deal.

Back then, Ohlmeyer said, “We started off winning the first 12 of 14 nights of the season; then baseball started.”

His chagrin is long past. Now, thanks to baseball, cable networks issue gleeful news releases about their prime-time and demographic victories against their foes.


http://mobile.nytimes.com/2014/10/18..._r=1&referrer=

[lewdog]

NO ONE CURRZZZZZ!!!!

[TLO]

I'd rather lick Jason Whitlock's ASS than read another Deberg thread.

[Prison Bitch]

The games are way too long. Avg 3:50 for the playoffs, it has to end. It's totally absurd.

[Deberg_1990]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

The games are way too long. Avg 3:50 for the playoffs, it has to end. It's totally absurd.

There are more pitching changes, catcher and coaches conferences than ever before

[lewdog]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

The games are way too long. Avg 3:50 for the playoffs, it has to end. It's totally absurd.

Yea we had multiple 5 and even a 6 hour game of the 8 we've played. That's absolutely unnecessary. I saw that the Arizona Fall League is trialing a 20 second pitch clock behind home plate this year. Should be interesting to see how that works out. I can understand from the pitcher standpoint but not sure if the time restarts if the batter steps in and out of box? If so, that doesn't help a ton.