Playoff ratings down almost 20% down year over year

[RedTruck]

either baseball is losing major popularity, or people aren't a fan of these matchups either.

[Salukifan2]

gotta be the people the teams in it. Last years world series had the highest ratings of any world series ever i think. If i remember correctly something like 25 mil watched game 7

[TSJ55]

Originally Posted by Brittingham.Sam

gotta be the people the teams in it. Last years world series had the highest ratings of any world series ever i think. If i remember correctly something like 25 mil watched game 7

Do you think game 6 had anything to do with that? I mean, even with The Birds winning, it was still an incredible baseball game.

[Salukifan2]

Im sure it did. But there were also alot of compelling stories on both sides

[webbbj]

I think baseball just does a poor job of marketing its players on all teams.

Derek Jeter was a legend from day 1 and is still probably the most popular player in baseball. I think thats a problem especially for a Yankee team w/ Robinson Cano on it.

We all knew Sosa and Griffey were the face of Pepsi.
Griffey had his own video game.

Mcgwire was Mcdonalds
Manny Ramirez and Big Papi were huge stars.

Now the general public is lost looking for the new stars.

I think trout and harper will take care of that. They are young phenoms coming up together on winning teams.

[osuredleg24]

The times during the NL/ALDS were awful..games on the MLB Network, seriously?

[redsfan80]

I heard someone say they couldn't watch the games in the NLCS so far because they cannot stand the announcing. (I know that is not a wide spread reason...but I thought it interesting.)

[40YrRedsFan]

Originally Posted by osuredleg24

The times during the NL/ALDS were awful..games on the MLB Network, seriously?

Agreed, starting times have been bad, many working people have not been able to watch........probably the biggest reason for the drop in viewers.

[40YrRedsFan]

Put the games back on free TV instead of pay TV...

[BluegrassRedleg]

Originally Posted by RedTruck

either baseball is losing major popularity, or people aren't a fan of these matchups either.

Both. This is an NFL country now. Only a few of us diehards remain for MLB.

[redsfan80]

Recent studies have shown that there are not as many NFL fans as people like to think. NFL games seem to be an event with a lot of families. Usually the families not really even watching the games....an excuse to grill out or eat junk food...a reason to have family/friends over. There's only one game a week, so make a big deal about it, but really, there's less interest in the actual game of football than people think.

For example, many people watch the Super Bowl simply because in most social circles it's something you do. But very few people actually watch the game or even care about the game. The game is put on Sunday evening, most people are home...it's almost like Thanksgiving in February haha.

Baseball is an everyday grind type of sport. Many of these games are right smack in the middle of the day, so if you are going to watch the game on television, then you are really actually going to watch the game, and care about the game. America can't make every baseball game a big event like football. Some teams play close to 200 games in a year (ST and Playoffs combined.)

[HometownHero]

Originally Posted by Brittingham.Sam

gotta be the people the teams in it. Last years world series had the highest ratings of any world series ever i think. If i remember correctly something like 25 mil watched game 7

No that Game 7 was the highest rated game since game 4 of the 2004 World Series, and the lowest game 7 rating in the modern TV era. Even with the high rated game's 6 and 7 the series got a average of 16.6M only 2010. 2008 and 2006 did worse. 2008 saw the Rays who have no fans in it.

Very good shot 2012 could challenge these lows if it doesn't get to a game 7. Since the Cards and Tigers had the 2006 series and in 2010 was the Giants, when the Giants went in 2002 it had the Angels in it from a massive market and it went 7 games to inflate the numbers.

[PumpFak3First]

I really don't care that the Reds are out now. I'll watch because I'm a sports addict but the baseball season is just too long and grueling. They really need to address that and would have been better off adjusting that then doing this ridiculous wild card playoff they are now running with. It's crap. Also the game is slow and in this day in age people will get bored with it and change the channel. Some players play entirely too slow either at the plate or pitching. Baseball needs to figure out a way to keep the pace of the game moving. I can't tell you how many times in this playoffs batters, catchers, and umps have called for time or pitchers have stepped off the rubber.

[Maker_84]

Im in the minority but the NFL = boring. College Football and MLB are way better

[Kcbuckeye22]

It's not free. That's the problem. Baseball is boring to most people, people aren't going to pay for boring. We have a crappy economy right now. People have ditched cable and satellite, and so have I. I only pay for MLB.TV and Netflix, which is way cheaper than cable. It's a crime I pay to watch baseball and pay more to watch the postseason.