ABC attracted 2.195 million viewers for Game 1 of the Wild Card Series between the Astros and the Twins on Sept. 29.getty images
The MLB Wild Card playoffs gave the sports business a better sense of ESPN’s programming strategy as it pertains to ABC.
The broadcast network carried three weekday afternoon Wild Card games, complementing coverage on ESPN and ESPN2.
“The idea was to give it more of a feel of a college football Saturday where there were games across all the Disney platforms,” said Burke Magnus, executive vice president of programming and scheduling. “But essentially the experience — the production — was the same.”
Last month, ESPN simulcast the Saints-Raiders “Monday Night Football” game on ABC and ESPN2. ABC (7.984 million viewers) drew a bigger audience than ESPN (7.451 million viewers).
The fact that ABC is carrying sports is not a new development. It has carried regular and postseason NBA games and has found success during college football season with prime-time Saturday night games, in addition to Saturday afternoon games.
While much of ESPN’s focus has been spent collecting rights for its ESPN+ streaming service, an increasing amount of sports is making its way onto ABC’s schedule.
It’s clear that ABC, like other broadcast networks, plans to lean more heavily into live sports programming, especially as entertainment viewership has migrated to streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime. In its current negotiations with the NFL, ESPN has made it clear that it wants to become part of the Super Bowl rotation and is looking to put a package on ABC.
With the expanded MLB playoffs, ESPN approached ABC with the idea of three weekday games that started at 2 p.m. ABC’s best audience came Sept. 29 with the Astros-Twins Game 1 (2.195 million viewers). It averaged 2.186 million viewers for the Marlins-Cubs Game 2 on Oct. 2 and 1.538 million viewers for the Martins-Cubs Game 1 on Sept. 30.
“They immediately were interested,” Magnus said. “The afternoon dayparts helped them. It didn’t disrupt prime time — we left prime time for ESPN and ESPN2. It ended up being a perfect part of the mix, especially on Sept. 30 when there were eight separate games being played. … It all whipped up into what we called The Fall Frenzy. But it really felt like it had the first round of the NCAA Tournament feel to it.”
Magnus said ABC was happy with the results. “And we love the audience that they delivered. Having ABC back in the mix for the first time with MLB since 1995 was fun for us.”
John Ourand can be reached at jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com. Follow him on Twitter @Ourand_SBJ and read his twice-weekly newsletter.
