Yellon: TBS’ baseball coverage is awful; here’s why

From SABR member Al Yellon at Bleed Cubbie Blue on October 22, 2015:

TBS, under contract to Major League Baseball through 2021 to carry a Sunday afternoon game and postseason coverage, had more people watching the National League Championship Series than any postseason series in its history.

They got a 4.8 rating across the entire country for the series — that’s a huge rating for a baseball playoff series on cable. Wednesday night’s Game 4 averaged 7.9 million total viewers and a 5.0 rating, the highest rating for any cable network for that night (based on metered markets). These numbers are up 99 percent (total viewers) and 86 percent in household rating over TBS’ ALCS Game 4 last year. Part of that, of course, is the New York and Chicago markets compared to the home markets for 2014 — Kansas City and Baltimore. The game drew an 18.9 rating in Chicago and an 18.8 rating in New York.

Unfortunately, these huge audiences were “treated” to some of the worst baseball television I have ever seen.

Read the full article here: http://www.bleedcubbieblue.com/2015/10/22/9599888/tbs-baseball-coverage-awful



Originally published: October 26, 2015. Last Updated: October 26, 2015.