How things have changed

[Bruce]

According to industry figures reported by Sports Media Watch, this year's World Series averaged 11.69 million viewers on FOX, down 26% from the 15.71 million average the 2025 series delivered.

 

[Jimbo]

According to industry figures reported by Sports Media Watch, this year's World Series averaged 11.69 million viewers on FOX, down 26% from the 15.71 million average the 2025 series delivered.

That thier own stupidity ...

They make it hard to find the game when its on FOX 1 game, then FS1, then on Tru or some other little ity biyy channel that people rerely watch and can't find. (I don't know if FOX is TRU or not, but thats what I'm saying, they put games on obscure channels and expect people to easily find it and watch.

 

[Bruce]

That thier own stupidity ...

They make it hard to find the game when its on FOX 1 game, then FS1, then on Tru or some other little ity biyy channel that people rerely watch and can't find. (I don't know if FOX is TRU or not, but thats what I'm saying, they put games on obscure channels and expect people to easily find it and watch.

Every WS game was on the main Fox Broadcast Channel, what are you referring to?

 

[AZ.]

Every WS game was on the main Fox Broadcast Channel, what are you referring to?

Throughout the playoffs most games were not over the air. They were on FS1 or TrueTV, HBO, TBS....So without a sports package you need FS1, and the others you need a old school TV package. If I had to guess, close to 75% of playoff games were not on free local TV.

 

[Jimbo]

Every WS game was on the main Fox Broadcast Channel, what are you referring to?

Playoffs ...

Technically, they are right, the actual World Series was all on Fox.

They have been talking about shortening the Season ... IF they ever do, they would need to have the Playoffs OVER before the NFL Starts ... which is 1st or 2nd week in September.

Between College and the NFL, the World Series loses viewers because Football is starting .... unless YOUR Team is in it.

I would consider my self the Avg baseball fan ... My teams were Out of it after the 1st round of playoffs, which shouldn't even be a thing, except we can make more MONEY ... lets add another 2 or 3 rounds to the playoffs.

Its a farce that they let half the league in the playoffs, when I grew up, there was real competitiveness in the playoffs, only a few teams made the Playoffs ... you had 4 divisions, winners were in, thats it ... (it was something like that).
Now its a participation sport, if you have a winning record, you can probably get in ...

 

[Foxbat]

I would say the drop in World Series viewing numbers was more relevant to the teams playing than some seismic shift away from traditional OTA or Cable to Streaming. In the Midwest and Florida, sure there was interest, but probably not in the rest of the country.

Plus, there were a number of political ads between innings and that may have turned some baseball fans off. But that's Broadcast TV and if not political ads, it would have been gambling or beer ads.

 

[Jimbo]

I would say the drop in World Series viewing numbers was more relevant to the teams playing than some seismic shift away from traditional OTA or Cable to Streaming. In the Midwest and Florida, sure there was interest, but probably not in the rest of the country.

Plus, there were a number of political ads between innings and that may have turned some baseball fans off. But that's Broadcast TV and if not political ads, it would have been gambling or beer ads.

To some degree thats true ...
Problem is, in order to have Large numbers, you have to have LA and NY in it most years ????

Milwaukee isn't that far from Chicago, so the WS would have had the #3 population city involved to some extent, even if they were rooting against them

 

[Bruce]

Throughout the playoffs most games were not over the air. They were on FS1 or TrueTV, HBO, TBS....So without a sports package you need FS1, and the others you need an old school TV package. If I had to guess, close to 75% of playoff games were not on free local TV.

But I never posted about the playoffs, only the World Series.

And a 4 million drop in households is a big deal, specially what Fox pays for it, they are already losing money on the MLB contract, now even more, since they might have to give some of the money back to advertisers, since it might of not made certain ratings goals.

 

[Bobby]

But I never posted about the playoffs, only the World Series.

And a 4 million drop in households is a big deal, specially what Fox pays for it, they are already losing money on the MLB contract, now even more, since they might have to give some of the money back to advertisers, since it might of not made certain ratings goals.

Last year it was the Dodgers and Bluejays. This year is was the Brewers and the Rays, two teams that never won a World Series. Last year the Dodgers were the former year champion, can they do a repeat against a Toronto team that looked unbeatable. That World Series was a classic between two teams that really wanted it. The highlight of this year was can Milwaukee go 4-0 like they did to the Dodgers, and they just about did.