Phillies' local television viewership falls dramatically in 2012
A disappointing season on the field for the Phillies has led to a big drop in local television viewership for the team's games this year.
Phillies' local television viewership falls dramatically in 2012
Jonathan Tannenwald
A disappointing season on the field for the Phillies has led to a big drop in local television viewership for the team's games this year.
The Sports Business Journal's John Ourand and David Broughton published the magazine's annual survey of Major League Baseball's local TV ratings on Wednesday.
Ourand and Broughton's data was collected with about a week and a half left to go in the season.
As of that point, the Phillies had suffered the second-biggest decrease in ratings by percentage in Major League Baseball, falling 38.6 percent to a 5.61 average rating.
The team's average viewership had the biggest decrease by percentage in the majors, falling by 39.1 percent to 168,000 viewers per game.
Only the San Diego Padres had a bigger percentage drop in average audience size, falling 39.4 percent to 20,000 viewers per game. That is less than half of PETCO Park's capacity of 42,445.
(It's worth noting that the Padres' drop came mainly because of a carriage dispute which kept many Padres games off some local cable systems. The Phillies had no such problem.)
The Phillies' average local rating is still the seventh-highest in the the majors, and the fourth-highest in the National League. The team's average audience size is tied for the third-largest in the majors and is alone as the second-largest in the National League.
The six teams above the Phillies in terms of local ratings are the Detroit Tigers (9.13), the Cincinnati Reds (8.64), the St. Louis Cardinals (7.68), the Pittsburgh Pirates (6.52), the Boston Red Sox (6.43) and the Texas Rangers (5.88).
In the average viewership standings, the three teams above the Phillies are the New York Yankees (286,000), the New York Mets (173,000) and the Detroit Tigers (168,000).
All of these numbers come as the Phillies prepare to negotiate a new local television contract after this season. It will be interesting to see whether the decreases in ratings and viewers affect the amount of money the Phillies get in their next deal.
For what it's worth, the team that had the largest percentage increase in local ratings is the team that snatched the NL East crown from the Phillies. The Washington Nationals' ratings rose 74.0 percent to a 2.54 average.
It so happens that the Nationals are also going into a local TV contract negotiation after this season. The channel that broadcasts their games, MASN, is 87 percent owned by the Baltimore Orioles, with the Nationals owning the remaining stake.
The Orioles own the Nationals' TV rights because Bud Selig gave them to Baltimore owner Peter Angelos' as a condition for the Montréal Expos' move to D.C. Angelos spent years fighting bitterly to stop the nation's capital from getting a team of its own because he felt it would cut into the Orioles' fan base.
If the Nationals are able to get a better deal from Angelos, it surely won't make the Phillies' efforts to regain the division title any easier. All of the teams in the NL East are now flush with money, whether from stadiums, TV deals or both.
But that doesn't mean the Phillies' rivals have equally passionate fans. As long as Citizens Bank Park remains full (or close to it), Philadelphia will remain a place where top players want to play.
As for whether the Nationals' recent success will grow the team's still-nascent fan base, well... I think I'll leave that to others to judge.
Phils need to put LA back on tv. He isn't afraid to call out a player for not giving his all. Case in point,today D.Brown shut it down on a infield grounder but would have made it a close play if he ran it out. LA comments on it saying someone needs to get in the kids face about it.
Tom McCarthy has no clue during the game what the count is or outs. If he would just shut up & pay attention to the game.
— wapum- The Phils were very difficult to watch, especially the first 2 months of the season. They just don't hit well enough to warrant a 3 hour investment. There is no joy in watching a team that doesn't move runners, swings at bad pitches and rarely bunches hits.
Add McCarthy who seems to excel at the promos instead of the game...we need a little less safe and secure & some more baseball fundamentals. Like working a count, talking the walk, making contact, hitting the ball the other way. Most of the Phils have next to no plate discipline.
— Fan74 - plain and simple, this team was hard to watch for "most" of the season... i tried, but just couldn't bare to watch the offense. how could you watch knowing if the other team scored 3 runs you were done...just ask cliff.— nyphilliephan
- I agree about the announcers. McCarthy seems like a nice guy but I think he gets paid by the word. He never shuts up and he is supposed to be the play by play guy but rambles on batter after batter without once giving a strike and ball count. I've seen him talk an entire half inning about a player from the Reds performance 3 seasons ago.Hey Tom, who cares. Do your job call the balls and strikes. He seems to want to be that terrible John Miller from San Fran that used to do Sunday games and didn't know where first base was.— REL3
- I really enjoy the crew talk about the shirts they are going to wear. I love sarge explain how dom brown jumped for a ball over the fence and he was 4 feet away... he said it was a curtesy jump. Put a rope around them all and charge admission.— stoky
- Well if CSN was available on DirectTV I would watch most of the games but.....well it isn't on DirectTV and is blacked on mlb.com so I don't see many games. Oh yeah, the broadcast team is pretty sad, never have liked Wheeler. Watched Phils/Mets on the NY station and much prefer their announcers. That leaves a bad taste in my mouth preferring something of the Mets over the Phillies but it is what it is.— Elei
- Wheels and McCarthy are "Safe and Secure" with New York Life.— Navyman
- I have MLB Extra Innings, and never watch the Phillies feed. I prefer every other broadcast, even Vin Scully, who talks more than McCarthy. McCarthy and Wheels suck the fun out of every game. Dave Montgomery, please address this issue in the off-season. The fans have had enough!— Napa818
