Padres ratings on FS San Diego this season are "way up" from last year even as the team "struggles on the field," according to John Maffei of the SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE. Through the season's first 90 games, in which the Padres are eight games under .500, they are averaging a 4.86 local rating, up around 56% from last season. FSSD Senior VP & GM Henry Ford said, "Our ratings are up dramatically, as well as for all the ancillary programs -- Padres Social Hour, the postgame show, SD Live and Padres POV." Maffei asked, "Why are more people watching this Padres team which is only one game better than last year's team that was 40-50 after 90 games? Is it the addition of Matt Kemp, Justin Upton, Will Middlebrooks, James Shields and Derek Norris?" Ford said, "It's a little bit of everything. The team has some big-name players. We've been around for a while now, we're fully distributed, and people know where to find us." Maffei wrote part of the attraction for viewers is "the quality of the telecasts." FSSD Exec Producer Jeff Byle "continually cranks out network quality telecasts," while the broadcast team of Dick Enberg and Mark Grant is "first rate." The recent addition of Mark Sweeney to home games, "making it a three-man booth, has been huge." The trio is "among the best in the business" (SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE, 7/16).
AROUND THE HORN: In this week's SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, John Ourand reports the Royals are "on pace to post MLB’s highest RSN rating leaguewide for the first time," averaging a 12.06 local rating on FS K.C. If that rating "holds for the remainder of the season, it would be MLB’s highest local rating for a team" since '07, when the Red Sox on NESN averaged a 12.08 local rating in Boston at midseason and a 12.20 for a season "that saw them win their second World Series in four years." The Royals' 12.06 rating also "more than doubles the Royals’ rating at the same point last season" and is the "sixth-highest in MLB this year." The Cardinals have the league’s second-highest rating with a 9.25 local rating in St. Louis. Of the 29 U.S.-based MLB clubs, 13 "showed local ratings increases from last season, 14 showed decreases and two were flat." Astros games are "up more than fourfold from last season, when games were on CSN Houston and had little distribution in the market." This year’s first-place Astros are averaging a 1.7 rating on Root Sports Southwest to date (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 7/13 issue). SNY is averaging a 2.24 local rating in N.Y. for Mets games to date, its best figure since '12. The RSN also is seeing record gains for pre- and post-game shows (SNY). Blue Jays game broadcasts on Rogers Media in Canada are averaging 625,000 viewers, up 9% compared to the same period last year (THE DAILY).
PHILLY FLIGHT: The Phillies begin the second half of the season at 29-62, the worst record in MLB, and in Philadelphia, Bob Fernandez writes local sports fans are "fleeing with their eyeballs" in these "bleakest of sports times." CSN Philadelphia is "taking an epic TV ratings beating," as Phillies viewership "has plummeted" 65% from '11. Meanwhile, 76ers viewership "has nosedived" 72% over the same period and even "rabid Flyers fans have cooled, with per-game TV viewership down" 36%. Former CBS Sports President Neal Pilson, currently a media consultant, said, "Those numbers are embarrassing, no question about it" (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 7/17).
