Ratings-wise, expect another off World Series

[Sean Mota]

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/news2003/sep03/sep22/2_tues/news5tuesday.html

Blame the wild card for draining viewers' interest

World Series ratings have dipped dramatically since its introduction. The drawn-out postseason hasn’t seen any puff in ratings to speak of.
And last year’s first-ever meeting between two wild card teams in the World Series produced the worst-ever ratings in series history.

Last year, when the Anaheim Angels and San Francisco Giants played, the series averaged an 11.9 rating for seven games.
In the wild card-inclusive past eight years the Series has averaged a 15.5 rating. Over the previous eight years, not counting the canceled-for-strike 1994 season, the series averaged a 21.9.

Baseball would be better off if the division-leading New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves, the team that has generated the biggest ratings the past 15 years, were the ones who go farther in the playoffs.
Since the extra round of playoffs mean more games and increased revenues, the wild card certainly won’t be dropped. But to stem the viewer disinterest that would no doubt result in, say, a Giants-Seattle Mariners World Series this year, perhaps the league should consider moving back the start of the season.

 

[Roger]

Unlike the NFL, baseball is a regional sport and if two west coast teams play again then of course it will bomb. You need two big market teams or a team of interest to have a good series. The last good one I can think of from the west coast was LA vs. Oakland in 1988. LA was a major market team while Oakland had a lot of star power.

 

[John Corn]

Pathetic. What a sad state the sport is in. Maybe they should just fix it so Atlanta plays New York every year then.

 

[Peter Parker]

Then again if by some chance either the Cubs or Red Sox get in you will see a surge of interest. Having said that I don't expect either to make the series.

 

[James]

Geronimo, you know better than to think either of those teams will go anywhere.

 

[John Corn]

I agree Geronimo, Cubs and Sox I believe would be good for ratings.

Ratings for just about every big TV event, sports or otherwise, have been dropping steadily over the last decade or two. It's hardly unique to baseball, and there's no big secret why it's happening.

Casual viewers, who always make up the bulk of the audience for these things, have entertainment options that simply weren't imaginable years ago. You can't expect any event (save, perhaps, the Super Bowl, which has become more of a full-blown secular national holiday than a mere game and can't be fairly compared with anything else) to draw the ratings it did in the days when cable, satellite, the Internet, DVD, MP3, and Gameboy were non-existant and you could count the number of TV channels on one hand.