Advertisers Paying Up for World Series Time
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Despite baseball audiences’ well-documented slide into relative senescence — the median age of MLB viewers is 54 years, ancient by TV standards — the World Series remains one of the last truly significant broadcast events on the calendar. Should the Fall Classic extend to a a seventh game, you’re looking at least a 15.0 household rating, where a ratings point equals 1% of all TV households — NFL numbers, essentially.
Blowouts and teams from tiny markets and blowouts can turn the World Series into a demolition derby, for advertisers and networks alike: The Giants’ sweep of Detroit in 2012 cost Fox as much as $115.8 million in potential ad sales, according to Kantar Media. But marketers are still willing to risk the occasional autumn doldrums in order to carve out some time with baseball’s live, engaged audience.
According to media buyers, 30-second spots during the upcoming World Series are pricing at around $520,000 a pop, up slightly versus last year. Fox does not disclose its ad rates, but confirmed that it has increased ad rates by mid-single digit percentages. Demand is consistent with historical levels, said Neil Mulcahy, exec VP, Fox Sports ad sales, adding that the National League Championship Series and World Series are 85% sold out.
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