TV ratings for MLB games "were down almost across the board," as the national networks and most RSNs "suffered significant declines during the regular season," according to John Ourand in this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL. Fox’s MLB ratings dropped 13% for its Saturday afternoon package, while ESPN's cable ratings fell 7%. TBS posted a 0.5 cable rating in its first full season of Sunday afternoon MLB games, averaging 624,000 viewers. That is down from a 0.6 cable rating, or 897,000 viewers, last year, which was the net’s final year televising Braves’ Sunday afternoon games. Local ratings were down as well, with 19 RSNs showing a dip. Only 11 RSNs saw ratings increases for regular-season games. RSN execs said that they "expect such year-to-year fluctuations, and say baseball’s local telecasts still draw good ratings, even if they are off a bit." CSN Exec VP & Chief Revenue Officer Ray Warren: “Even a bad year is a better year than a lot of other cable networks have.” FSN’s performance was "virtually flat," off 4% from last year. FSN Exec VP/Ad Sales Kyle Sherman: “That’s an acceptable variance. ... Overall, I think we held up extremely well.” With an average of only 8,000 homes tuning in for each game, the Nationals had "by far the lowest audience of any team, and showed a bigger year-to-year percentage drop" than any MLB team (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 10/13 issue).