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State of the Screens

Baseball Has Its Issues, But Declining TV Ratings Isn’t One of Them

By November 7, 2019No Comments

The bad news: World Series viewership declined for the third year straight.

The good news: Viewership declined at a lower rate for the World Series compared to broadcast TV as a whole, and only the NFL pulls in more viewers.

Total broadcast viewership for primetime (YoY growth):
1) 
2017-18 – 26.7M
2) 
2018-19 – 24.7M (↓ 7%)

Total broadcast viewership for the World Series (YoY growth):
1) 
2018 – 14.1M
2) 
2019 – 13.6M (↓ 4%)

World Series viewership by year (YoY growth):
1) 
2009 – 19.3M
2) 
2010 – 14.2M (↓ 26%)
3) 2011 – 16.5M (↑ 16%)
4) 2012 – 12.6M (↓ 24%)
5) 2013 – 15.0M (↑ 19%)
6) 2014 – 13.9M (↓ 7%)
7) 2015 – 14.5M (↑ 4%)
8) 2016 – 22.8M (↑ 57%)
9) 2017 – 18.9M (↓ 17%)
10) 2018 – 14.1M (↓ 25%)
11) 2019 – 13.6M (↓ 4%)

Estimated World Series advertising (YoY growth) according to iSpot.tv:
1) 
2018 – $215.8M
2) 
2019 – $253.9M (↑ 18%)

More #1: Why Fox isn’t sweating the low-rated World Series: Sports Media Brief

More #2: Advertisers flood World Series in search of D.C. opinion leaders

Michael Beach

Michael Beach is the Chief Executive Officer of Cross Screen Media, a media analytics and software company that enables marketers to plan, activate, and measure CTV and linear TV at the local level. Michael is also the founder and editor of State of the Screens, a weekly newsletter focused on video advertising that is a must-read for thought leaders in the advertising industry. He has appeared in such publications as PBS Frontline, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Axios, CNBC and Bloomberg, and on NPR’s Planet Money podcast.