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FS1 Sets Records During '14 MLB Playoffs, But Below Recent Years On Fox, TBS

The NLCS delivered new record audiences for FS1 during the cable net’s first year broadcasting MLB postseason games, but viewership for the Giants-Cardinals series -- which also featured one game on Fox -- was down from both the NLCS and ALCS last year. Fox and FS1 combined to average 4.46 million viewers for the five-game NLCS, down from 7.74 million viewers for the six-game Red Sox-Tigers ALCS last year, which aired exclusively on Fox. Last year’s Cardinals-Dodgers six-game NLCS on TBS averaged 4.96 million viewers. When TBS had the four-game Tigers-Yankees ALCS in '12, the net averaged 5.92 million viewers. TBS also averaged 4.61 million viewers for the six-game Cardinals-Brewers NLCS in '11. TBS is in an estimated 100 million homes compared to 85 million for FS1. Despite the audience being lower compared to previous years, the move of many MLB playoff games to FS1 delivered record numbers for the net. Five of FS1’s top seven most-viewed programs on record came during the ’14 MLB playoffs. Giants-Cardinals Game 4 ranks as the top audience for FS1 on record with 5.09 million viewers, while last Thursday’s clinching Game 5 ranks No. 2 with 4.89 million viewers (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

MIGRATION PATTERN: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir wrote this year's MLB postseason, “more than ever, underscores cable’s dominance,” as TBS, FS1, ESPN and MLB Network “have each had pieces” of the playoffs. In this “shifting sports business landscape,” the money that MLB “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.” Five NLCS games were scheduled for FS1 this year, with two slated for Fox, “whereas in past seasons, Fox routinely broadcast all its LCS games.” While Giants-Cardinals Game 4 may have set a viewership record for FS1 with 5.09 million viewers, Red Sox-Tigers ALCS Game 4 on Fox in the same slot last year drew 8.09 million viewers. Meanwhile, as the league has now done since ’12, MLB Network aired two LDS games, which, “under its new contract, Fox sold” to the league-owned net. MLB Net is in around 70 million U.S. homes, which is “great for a league-owned network but not as widely distributed” as TBS or FS1 (N.Y. TIMES, 10/18).

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