The Padres saw a 15% audience bump in the San Diego market for the team’s first game on the new SDPA on Monday compared to what games had been averaging on Bally Sports San Diego in 2023. The team had a TV household audience of 59,996 for its series finale against the Cubs, which was its SDPA debut after MLB took over the broadcast’s production and distribution last week. “The word that comes to mind is ‘shocking,’” said Playfly Sports COO Craig Sloan, whose company’s sales division, Home Team Sports, represents every RSN within the U.S. “There's got to be a larger set of data to say this is actually sustainable, but I don't know why it wouldn't be. At the end of the day, it should be a great indicator.”
On Tuesday, the Padres held steady with a TV household audience of 57,212 before that number dropped to 37,569 for Wednesday’s matinee against the Mariners, according to Nielsen data provided by Playfly Sports. The Padres’ three-game average of 51,352 between Monday and Wednesday is in line with the 52,464 the team averaged over the course of last June while they were still on Bally. “It's such a large statement about the idea of the connection that people have to the content, meaning no matter where it is, they're going to find it,” Sloan said. “In this particular case, the channel positioning was all new.” The Padres -- whose games between May 31 and June 4 were available for free on MLB.com, Padres.com and the MLB apps -- are now available in San Diego on DirecTV, Spectrum, AT&T U-Verse, Cox and Fubo.
