Fox Says World Series Still Brings Advertising Value; S.F. Market Down From Recent Years

Fox execs “strongly believe” the World Series is still a “highly valuable marketing event for advertisers” despite the event coming off its lowest rating ever according to John Consoli of BROADCASTING & CABLE. Fox Sports VP/Programming & Research Mike Mulvihill said that the net's message to advertisers is that “despite the drop, the World Series will continue to be a top 10 show among viewers and do even better among adults 18-49 and among men 18-49.” Mulvihill said, "If you look at the World Series ratings, and compared them to all primetime programming season to date, it would rank sixth among adults 18-49 and second among men 18-49. There is still a lot of value there even though viewership is not what it was 30 or 40 years ago." Consoli wrote neither Mulvihill “nor anyone else from Fox would discuss" whether the World Series remained profitable. A source said that the World Series “can't be looked at in a vacuum.” The source added, “There's no way to separate the World Series from the entire MLB package. This year, there was a seven-game League Championship Series on Fox so that helps to offset the four-game World Series a bit.” Consoli writes that while the days of “drawing 30 million viewers to a televised World Series game may be long gone, new opportunities via other platforms could be monetized by Fox down the road” when the net's eight-year, $4.2B deal with MLB begins in '14 (BROADCASTINGCABLE.com, 10/31). In Detroit, Bill Shea wrote under the header, “Why Do American Television Viewers Hate The Detroit Tigers In October?” Baseball “simply isn’t as popular as it once was.” Some teams, such as the Tigers, “remain immensely popular in their local markets” (CRAINSDETROIT.com, 10/30).

MARKET WATCH: The home markets for the Tigers and Giants topped the list of local market ratings for the four-game World Series on Fox. Also performing well was the Sacramento market with a 25.6 rating. Only six of 56 metered markets averaged a double-digit rating. Last year's World Series home markets -- St. Louis and Dallas-Ft. Worth -- drew seven-game averages of 47.2 and 38.0, respectively. During the '10 World Series, the S.F.-Oakland-San Jose market averaged a 35.3 local rating for the five-game series against the Rangers. During the Angels-Giants seven-game series in '02, the market drew a 35.1 rating (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).