Subway Series Strikes Out
N E W Y O R K, Oct. 28, 2000 -- This Subway Series drew only token viewership.
Fox Sports’ telecasts of the New York Yankees’ five-game victoryover the cross-city Mets produced the lowest-rated World Series inhistory, drawing big audiences in the Big Apple but in few othermajor TV markets.
The games averaged a 12.4 national rating and 21 share, down22.5 percent from last year and 12 percent from 1998’s previousrecord low.
Both the rating and share are less than half of what they werein 1986, the last time the Mets played in the World Series. Eachrating point represents a little more than 1 million televisionhouseholds; share is the percentage of in-use TVs tuned to aprogram.
Fox: Maybe Numbers Are Wrong
“Our research people are going to have to take a look and seeif they can come up with some explanations,” Fox Sports presidentEd Goren said Friday. “I’m guessing maybe there’s something wrongwith the national Nielsen sampling. This has been a difficult yearfor a lot of us.”
Indeed.
The trend of sinking ratings hasn’t discriminated much by sportor network this year. NBC’s coverage of the Summer Games drew thelowest ratings for a Summer or Winter Olympics since 1968. The NCAAmen’s college basketball title game dropped 18 percent from a yearago, which was the previous low since CBS started airing the eventin 1982. The All-Star games for the NBA and baseball were theworst-rated ever.
One notable exception is the Super Bowl, which continues toconsistently draw ratings above 40.
The World Series’ showing, which industry analysts say alsocould be traced to lengthy games and competition from fall TVseason premieres pushed back by the Sydney Olympics, forced Fox toshow “make-goods”—”free” commercials to make sure sponsors’messages reach as many viewers as were paid for.
But the bottom line shouldn’t be affected, the network said.
“We’re in pretty good shape, given extra innings in Game 1 andads we’ve run during pitching changes. For the few advertisers thatwe still need to address, we will make it up to them in primetime,” Fox Sports VP Lou D’Ermilio said. “Our sales peopleconsider it to be not a major issue.”
Big Ratings in New York
This year’s Game 5, a 4-2 Yankees victory Thursday night at SheaStadium, drew a series-best 13.1 rating. Sixty-one percent of TVsthat were on in New York on Thursday night tuned in to the game.
But the overall ratings were hurt by disappointing audiences inother large markets around the country. Of the 40 largest marketsafter New York, 30 registered double-digit percentage losses fromthe 1999 series.
“I don’t have any reaction right now,” baseball commissionerBud Selig said. “I’m going to study them over the weekend, andI’ll have a comment next week.”
Fox’s silver lining is that, while losing a lot of olderviewers, it did well among men between 18-34, a group advertisersseek. And, while Fox’s entertainment programming regularly leavesit behind the other major networks in prime-time ratings, the WorldSeries allowed Fox to win three of the five nights when there weregames.
Fox is major league baseball’s exclusive postseason broadcasterfor the next six years, having secured TV rights to the playoffs,World Series and All-Star games as part a $2.5 billion deal drawnup last month.
The network and sport hope baseball’s ratings swoon this seasonwas an aberration. The regular season ratings were down from 1999on Fox (10 percent), ESPN and ESPN2 (both about 15 percent), theAll-Star game set a new low rating, and the early rounds of theplayoffs were down 15-32 percent on various broadcasters.
But there could be two lasting TV effects of the first all-NewYork World Series since 1956: Other networks might decide they willtry to counter Fox’s games with first-run programming, and Foxwon’t have a strong 2000 rating to use as a basis for 2001 adsales.
“The only financial hit really may come a year from now,” saidPaul Schulman, president of media buyer Schulman/Advanswers NY.“People will be expecting more in the area of a 12.5 again.”