Baseball. America's favorite past time. Right? If this is so, why do the ratings of the past many years World Series show otherwise. Football and the NFL Super Bowl is raking in the ratings and skyrocketing costs of ad space.
The last time there were record setting viewers for the World Series was in 1978 during the New York Yankees versus Los Angeles Dodgers with an average of 44.3 million viewers for NBC. Higher ratings have been attributed to teams with larger DMAs. For example, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox. Larger markets equal larger ratings. The same does not necessarily apply for the Super Bowl.
Last years Super Bowl where the Green Bay Packers took on the Pittsburgh Stealers, advertising space was estimated to sell for around $3 million for a 30 second advertisement.
Here is where my question arises. If baseball is supposed to be America's favorite past time, then why don't ratings shoot up during the World Series as they do in the Super Bowl. Maybe if the appeal of "awesome Super Bowl ads" is used in the World Series, they will gain more viewership. Because lets be honest, most of those who watch the Super Bowl are only watching it for the commercials. According to Nielsen's Vice President of Sports Media Research Stephen Master, "Close to 50% of viewers tune in to actually watch the commercials, more than they watch the game."
Well isn't that interesting. Maybe the solution for higher ratings during the World Series is to anticipate the commercials just as the Super Bowl commercials are. How did that start in the first place?
Since I definitely fall into the category of those who watch the Super Bowl for the commercials, but yes I am a huge football fan, (Gotta stay loyal to my Seahawks, even though they will probably never make it to a Super Bowl again)here is one of my favorite ads from last Super Bowl. enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R55e-uHQna0
http://adage.com/article/mediaworks/tv-a-1978-world-series/230656/
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/03/news/companies/super_bowl_ads/index.htm
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