Interesting Stats

[SoSueMe]

Sure, it's mostly about Katie Couric, but some cool stats.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2006/10/31/entertainment/e141700S49.DTL

None of the World Series games on Fox between St. Louis and Detroit — the lowest-rated Series ever — managed to crack the top 10 last week.

However, both ABC and NBC (news broadcasts) were down from a year ago. CBS has pointed to that movement, and its own broadcast's improvement among younger demographics, as proof that progress is being made.

Is North America just becoming apathetic toward news in general?

 

[PeteyPirate]

I think message boards are taking over.

 

[Shifty Squid]

I've always wanted to do this.

BLOGS!!

 

[Lugnuts]

Here's what floored me.

Looking at the MLB Playoffs and World Series ratings-- (and Keith Olbermann has picked up on this, too, so I'm not a kook)-- there's a huge gap between the overall rating and the Adult 18-54 rating. Ditto Men 18-34.

For example, an NLCS game might have done a 5.3 or something-- not bad, not bad at all. But the Adult 18-54 number would be a 2.0. That's horrible.

And just looking at the crowd shots during the games... older and white. Olbermann says baseball hurt itself with so few day games-- i.e. kids never got hooked, and now you have an entire generation that isn't into baseball.

I agree but think it's more than that.

 

[SoSueMe]

Here's what floored me.

Looking at the MLB Playoffs and World Series ratings-- (and Keith Olbermann has picked up on this, too, so I'm not a kook)-- there's a huge gap between the overall rating and the Adult 18-54 rating. Ditto Men 18-34.

For example, an NLCS game might have done a 5.3 or something-- not bad, not bad at all. But the Adult 18-54 number would be a 2.0. That's horrible.

And just looking at the crowd shots during the games... older and white. Olbermann says baseball hurt itself with so few day games-- i.e. kids never got hooked, and now you have an entire generation that isn't into baseball.

I agree but think it's more than that.

Good point. In 1984 I was eight. And I remember I had to be in bed shortly after the games started. Anyway, my dad had to wake me up to watch Gibby's dramatic homer off the Goose. He told me, before bed, "if the game gets interesting or it looks like the Tigers are going to win, I'll come wake up." He did. I saw it. I think I cried.

Now, I can't remember times of first pitches 22 years ago, but I bet they weren't 8:19 or 8:29 or whatever they were this season (I think 8:09 was the earliest). Kids simply can't stay awake to watch games. And, even on Saturday's during the regular season, teams play at night. It should be mandatory for the league to play Saturday AND Sunday afternoon!! Get rid of these stupid midweek "businessmen lunch" start times (i.e. Thursdays at noon or 1 p.m.)

And, during the playoffs, they play early series (ALDS and ALCS) games on specialty stations and/or at the same time as the NLDS and NLCS.

Simply put, baseball has a marketing problem - other than MLB.com, which is unreal!

 

[SoSueMe]

Ah shirt, I also forgot this: PRICES!

MLB priced the average Joe out of the playoffs.

It cost me $350 to sit in left for Game 1 of the World Series this year. Beer was $8 each and hotdogs - are you ready? - $5. I had to do it once in my life, but I'd never do it again.

How can anyone aged, say, 18-40 afford to part with that more than once in a lifetime? I'm still dreading my Visa bill.

 

[Bob Cook]

Baseball -- like boys high school basketball in Indiana -- was successful for so long because, for so long, there was no competition. If baseball wants to be popular with the younger set as it was for Baby Boomers, it needs to go back in time to the mid-1960s, when pro football was still marginal, and about any other sport college or pro was popular in certain regions, but not necessarily nationally. Plus, you can't get the kids who really like baseball to watch it because 10-year-old Billy's fall league travel team has five practices this week for the six-game, round-robin tournament three states away this weekend.

Also, don't discount the influence of video games. My 9-year-old son and his friends don't have the patience merely to watch a game -- at the stadium, maybe, but not so much at home. Why watch baseball players when you can turn on a game and BE baseball players?

 

[playthrough]

Great point on video games Bob. There's gotta be a zillion kids that wouldn't be caught dead attending a PGA Tour event or maybe even hitting balls at a range, but they can sit through 18 holes on the Playstation. And shoot 62.

 

[shotglass]

Olbermann's theory and the video-game theory -- both are large in this.

 

[Blue_Water]

Disagree on the Olbermann theory completely. My 8-year-old is very into baseball and has watched plenty of night games.

I love baseball - played my whole life, go to games, etc. - it's just a horrible sport for television. It always has been, but as someone else said, there was little competition against it before. When I was a kid in the 70s it was baseball against what, maybe five other channels?

 

[Michael_ Gee]

I've made this point before, but when talking about the night games, you have to remember it isn't just one or two, it's a month's worth. No parent can let a kid stay up till midnight 22 days out of a month. Few parents can do it themselves.
The reason for those awful Tommy Lasorda commercials is that MLB's surveys must've showed that baseball fans who aren't followers of the teams involved are skipping the playoffs. They're sad their team was eliminated, but they're relieved they don't have to make the commitment to the post-season.
Everyone knows major league beat writer is the most inhuman job in sports journalism. Anyone who's ever been to a World Series knows those writers spend most of the Fall Classic rooting for the damn thing to be over, and rightly so. Self-preservation is a good thing.
In its infinite marketing genius, MLB has got the fans thinking like writers.