Fox Sports, ESPN expect MLB playoffs to deliver

By Paul J. Gough

NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) – Don’t hand Fox a crying
towel over the playoff elimination of two proven postseason
ratings winners, the New York Yankees and the Boston Red Sox.

Despite tough competition from “Monday Night Football” and
a primetime lineup including ABC’s “Desperate Housewives,”
postseason baseball did more than hold its own this time
around. Fox and ESPN are coming off double-digit increases in
ratings and viewership in key demos, including adults 18-49 and
adults 18-34, for the week of divisional series.

“We’re off to a great start,” Fox Sports president Ed Goren
said. “If you asked me a week ago about the divisionals, there
is no way that I would have suggested that we would be up 25%
over last year’s divisional series, and in particular I would
have been shocked that men 18-34 would be up 56%.”

And while the remaining four teams lack the Yankees or the
Red Sox star power, Fox thinks there’s plenty of drama ahead. A
best-case scenario would be a Cardinals-White Sox World Series,
with St. Louis looking to avenge last year’s sweep at the hands
of the Red Sox, and the White Sox looking to get out from under
a so-called curse that has haunted the Chicago team since 1917.
But the other two teams, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and
the Houston Astros, also provide intriguing opportunities to
Fox, too.

“Present me a team, and I’ll give you a story line,” Goren
said.

This year’s Red Sox could be the White Sox, which seems to
have the underdog qualities that made the Red Sox ratings
dynamite last year. Fox wants to avoid a repeat of 2002, when
the Giants-Angels series conspired to the lowest ratings in
history.

“We have reasonable geographical distribution this time
around,” Goren said. “You’re not looking at New York-New York
or Giants-Angels. We’re going to be fine.”

ESPN and ESPN2 broke all kinds of records, with ESPN’s
most-watched week with 3.5 million households. ESPN’s eight
games averaged 4.5 million viewers, up 15% and up 12% in adults
18-49 and up 11% in men 18-49 and men 18-34. ESPN2′s two games
– including the 18-inning, nearly six-hour epic battle between
the Astros and the Atlanta Braves — averaged 3.5 million
viewers compared with last year’s 2.6 million viewers.

Friday night’s Red Sox-White Sox game was the highest-rated
telecast in the history of ESPN2 and only slightly behind Game
3 of the 2003 American League Division Series between the
Oakland A’s and the Red Sox. Sunday’s Astros-Braves marathon
averaged 4.86 million viewers.

“One of the seductive qualities (of the Division Series) is
that it’s the best of five,” said Len DeLuca, ESPN senior vp
programming strategy. “Best of five means you get it done in a
week, and secondly, one loss at home is critical.”

In a strictly business sense, Fox hopes whoever wins, each
of the series go seven games.

“At this point, you root for volume. You start an LCS with
a number in your head, and it’s like playing blackjack. The big
number is 21 (games),” Goren said. A seven-game series gives
Fox the maximum in advertising revenue as well as ratings.

And that’s important to Fox, which has seen early ratings
success with such shows as “Prison Break” and “House,” Goren
said.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter