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2020 Around the MLB Thread

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My MLB viewership is strictly Cleveland-centric and I couldn't give a fuck less about the NBA (regular season, playoffs, or otherwise). I believe STO's local ratings have been very strong for Indians broadcasts.

STO keeps f'ing w/ providers and are costing themselves viewership as well. YoutubeTV, for example, was the best streaming service for live sports in my market. Now they've not agreed to the new prices FOX was pushing and lost STO so no Indians except on FS1 or FS2 replays (or the rare series on another channel). Then Youtube went and hurt itself by adding Viacom trash channels (MTV, CMT, BET, Comedy Central) and jacked the pricing of the service to compensate. Now it's just like having cable again, expensive and not what I want to watch! I digress.
 
My MLB viewership is strictly Cleveland-centric and I couldn't give a fuck less about the NBA (regular season, playoffs, or otherwise). I believe STO's local ratings have been very strong for Indians broadcasts.
Double thumbs up to that !!!!!! :celb (2):
 
Hopefully this provides a more complete picture than what you'd get at a network of agenda-driven political nonsense. Because being informed is pretty important, these days.

MLB is doing just fine, and so is the NBA (considering).


Early Regional Sports Network TV Ratings And Ad Sales For MLB Are Up Compared With 2019


The sample size is small, but as expected—with fans and advertisers starved for live sports content in the summer—early ratings and ad sales for the regional sports networks that support the clubs of Major League Baseball are up, giving a small positive sheen on the loss of more than 100 games the league will see because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Based on numbers from Nielsen by way of Home Team Sports—a division of FOX Sports that represents every regional sports network in the country for ad sales, brand partnerships, marketing and more—the 29 U.S.-based MLB teams and their regional sports networks through July 30 saw an overall increase of 17% year-over-year in total ratings (3.66 vs. 3.11). The increase plays against the oddity of MLB starting its season at a time that would normally be after the All-Star Game.

The Toronto Blue Jays are not tracked by Nielsen because they are based in Canada and therefore are not part of the data released.

According to Home Team Sports, among adults 18 to 34, impressions across 22 Local People Meter (LPM) markets were up 128% through July 30 versus the same number of games last year. Among adults 18 to 49, impressions were up 88%, and among adults 25 to 54, impressions were up 62%, a good sign that MLB is reaching a younger demo.

On top of the ratings increase, advertisers are gaining back some of their losses.

Heading into the season, MLB was in a solid position to have ad sales increase as the natural lull in programming from July through September drives brands to baseball, a solid haven with its live content and large inventory of games. With the pandemic, and with live sports on hold for so long, fans and advertisers have been starved for MLB’s missing content, raising expectations that ratings would be up. The early numbers appear to bear that out.

As the RSNs approached the shortened 60-game season that started in July, well over 90% of ad inventory had already been sold, something that would make sense given the late start to the season.

A lot of the RSN ad sales were done upfront before the season started, and the advertisers have stuck with Major League Baseball through the uncertainty of whether they could get any semblance of a season in. “With the truncated season, the inventory is filling up,” said Craig Sloan, the executive vice president of Home Team Sports. “But in addition to that, with the lack of sports alternatives for fans to attend in-person due to coronavirus mandates, those fans are now watching on television and digital platforms, increasing the overall audience size.”

Sloan noted that after labor disputes and in the case of 9/11, in every instance when games returned, fans starved for live action increased ratings and viewership, not just for that season but for the season after. He believes that the ratings will remain up for MLB, although it will be interesting to see if that is affected by the overlap with the NBA and the NHL seasons, which would normally not push into July, August and September.

For the early ratings, 19 U.S. clubs saw ratings increases, with ten in decline.

Leading the way for the increases were the Houston Astros (+97%); the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are benefiting from increased distribution now that SportsNet LA is on DirecTV (+95%); the Chicago White Sox (+61%); and the Texas Rangers (+52%).

For declines, the rebuilding Seattle Mariners lead the way on ROOT Sports NW (-29%), followed by the Pittsburgh Pirates (-26%) and the Milwaukee Brewers (-20%). Surprisingly, the 2019 World Series champion Washington Nationals on MASN started the season down 8%, and the vaunted New York Yankees were down 10% on YES.

In terms of pure ratings, the Cleveland Indians lead the league with a 10.23 rating early in the season on Sports Time Ohio. They are the only team to see RSN ratings in double digits. The Miami Marlins, who had just five games under their belts before a Covid-19 outbreak forced them off the field, had the lowest ratings early in the season (1.39) on FOX Sports Florida.

All the RSN groups—including Sinclair, which purchased the FOX Sports RSNs as part of the larger Disney DIS -1.3% purchase of FOX assets—are up, minus ROOT Sports NW, which is majority-owned by the Seattle Mariners. Sinclair-held RSNs saw ratings up 14%, NBC Sports RSNs were up 30%, AT&T SportsNet RSNs were up 32%, and independents such as NESN, MASN, SNY and SportsNet LA were up 16%.

The ratings numbers are for RSNs only and do not account for overall viewership when a game might be simulcast on a national network such as ESPN, TBS or FOX.

The table below shows the designated market area (DMA) TV household (HH) rating through July 30, 2020, and that figure through the same number of games in 2019, followed by the percent change.

960x0.jpg
 
Hopefully this provides a more complete picture than what you'd get at a network of agenda-driven political nonsense. Because being informed is pretty important, these days.

MLB is doing just fine, and so is the NBA (considering).


Early Regional Sports Network TV Ratings And Ad Sales For MLB Are Up Compared With 2019


The sample size is small, but as expected—with fans and advertisers starved for live sports content in the summer—early ratings and ad sales for the regional sports networks that support the clubs of Major League Baseball are up, giving a small positive sheen on the loss of more than 100 games the league will see because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Based on numbers from Nielsen by way of Home Team Sports—a division of FOX Sports that represents every regional sports network in the country for ad sales, brand partnerships, marketing and more—the 29 U.S.-based MLB teams and their regional sports networks through July 30 saw an overall increase of 17% year-over-year in total ratings (3.66 vs. 3.11). The increase plays against the oddity of MLB starting its season at a time that would normally be after the All-Star Game.

The Toronto Blue Jays are not tracked by Nielsen because they are based in Canada and therefore are not part of the data released.

According to Home Team Sports, among adults 18 to 34, impressions across 22 Local People Meter (LPM) markets were up 128% through July 30 versus the same number of games last year. Among adults 18 to 49, impressions were up 88%, and among adults 25 to 54, impressions were up 62%, a good sign that MLB is reaching a younger demo.

On top of the ratings increase, advertisers are gaining back some of their losses.

Heading into the season, MLB was in a solid position to have ad sales increase as the natural lull in programming from July through September drives brands to baseball, a solid haven with its live content and large inventory of games. With the pandemic, and with live sports on hold for so long, fans and advertisers have been starved for MLB’s missing content, raising expectations that ratings would be up. The early numbers appear to bear that out.

As the RSNs approached the shortened 60-game season that started in July, well over 90% of ad inventory had already been sold, something that would make sense given the late start to the season.

A lot of the RSN ad sales were done upfront before the season started, and the advertisers have stuck with Major League Baseball through the uncertainty of whether they could get any semblance of a season in. “With the truncated season, the inventory is filling up,” said Craig Sloan, the executive vice president of Home Team Sports. “But in addition to that, with the lack of sports alternatives for fans to attend in-person due to coronavirus mandates, those fans are now watching on television and digital platforms, increasing the overall audience size.”

Sloan noted that after labor disputes and in the case of 9/11, in every instance when games returned, fans starved for live action increased ratings and viewership, not just for that season but for the season after. He believes that the ratings will remain up for MLB, although it will be interesting to see if that is affected by the overlap with the NBA and the NHL seasons, which would normally not push into July, August and September.

For the early ratings, 19 U.S. clubs saw ratings increases, with ten in decline.

Leading the way for the increases were the Houston Astros (+97%); the Los Angeles Dodgers, who are benefiting from increased distribution now that SportsNet LA is on DirecTV (+95%); the Chicago White Sox (+61%); and the Texas Rangers (+52%).

For declines, the rebuilding Seattle Mariners lead the way on ROOT Sports NW (-29%), followed by the Pittsburgh Pirates (-26%) and the Milwaukee Brewers (-20%). Surprisingly, the 2019 World Series champion Washington Nationals on MASN started the season down 8%, and the vaunted New York Yankees were down 10% on YES.

In terms of pure ratings, the Cleveland Indians lead the league with a 10.23 rating early in the season on Sports Time Ohio. They are the only team to see RSN ratings in double digits. The Miami Marlins, who had just five games under their belts before a Covid-19 outbreak forced them off the field, had the lowest ratings early in the season (1.39) on FOX Sports Florida.

All the RSN groups—including Sinclair, which purchased the FOX Sports RSNs as part of the larger Disney DIS -1.3% purchase of FOX assets—are up, minus ROOT Sports NW, which is majority-owned by the Seattle Mariners. Sinclair-held RSNs saw ratings up 14%, NBC Sports RSNs were up 30%, AT&T SportsNet RSNs were up 32%, and independents such as NESN, MASN, SNY and SportsNet LA were up 16%.

The ratings numbers are for RSNs only and do not account for overall viewership when a game might be simulcast on a national network such as ESPN, TBS or FOX.

The table below shows the designated market area (DMA) TV household (HH) rating through July 30, 2020, and that figure through the same number of games in 2019, followed by the percent change.

960x0.jpg
The MASN ratings are down in part because they restrict streaming viewers. MASN local sports telecast are not available on YouTube TV or Hulu live TV.
 
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Brutal. Fentantyl getting out of control.
Is this a big problem in the mlb? My wife was given fentanyl, morphine and oxicodone before she went into labor and they couldn’t figure out what was causing her so much pain. She was gone by the time they discovered she was going into labor and moved her to a delivery room.
 
So in a year, MLB will release an announcement and update to the rule book, letting everyone know that what Cole did was illegal. But they couldnt suspend him at the time, because during the course of the investigation they pinkie promised him they wouldnt suspend him
 
Yep, just like Bauer caught so much crap for when he talked about Coles assent in going to Houston.

It is a huge advantage, ONE the league seems loathe to do anything about, and one I think we haven't heard the last from, from our friend Mr. Bauer, as he now leads the league in highest FB spin rates. And I suspect when someone wants to make noise about it, he will turn his pub arm to making a mockery out of the lack of enforcement and the uneven playing field it causes.
 
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