VIAlytics

With less than two weeks to go until the 2014 MLB Playoffs, the pennant races have tightened considerably with fans in Seattle and Milwaukee on the edge of their seats as their respective teams try to squeak into a final Wild Card playoff berth. And as for fans in Baltimore, Los Angeles and Washington, it has been a bit of a yawn as their teams are comfortably ensconced in first place, biding their time until the playoffs begin.

This season, starting September 30^th and running for the next thirty days, four different cable networks will carry MLB playoff games: TBS; FOX Sports One; MLB and ESPN. And for the past two playoff seasons, TBS was the predominant cable network carrier, delivering consistently strong national household ratings:

^{Source: Viamedia analysis of Rentrak TV Essentials Data (Telecast Summary Report—Top 500) for TBS; October 2012 vs 2013. Estimated average HH ratings are based on a weight-average across all listed MLB Playoff Games (29 games in 2012 and 26 games in 2013.)}

Home Team Market Ratings Soar

The strong U.S. MLB Playoff ratings on TBS is just the tip of the iceberg. Based on a sampling of seven games last October, local DMA ratings rose dramatically when the home-market team was playing. These seven MLB Playoff games averaged a 4.0 U.S. national HH rating. That figure more than quadrupled (to 17.0) within home team markets:

^{Source: Viamedia analysis of Rentrak TV Essentials Data (Telecast Summary Report—Top 500) for seven TBS MLB Playoff Games in October 2013. The average DMA HH rating takes into consideration duration of ball game and local market UEs. U.S. rating is a weight average based on tuning duration. Seven games are: Oct 9th (Pittsburgh Pirates at St. Louis Cardinals); October 18th (Los Angeles Dodgers at St. Louis Cardinals); October 8th (Boston Red Sox at Tampa Bay Rays); October 10th (Detroit Tigers at Oakland Athletics); October 2nd (Tampa Bay Rays at Cleveland Indians); October 1st (Cincinnati Reds at Pittsburgh Pirates); October 7th (Atlanta Braves at Los Angeles Dodgers).}

And, of course, there are individual games where the home DMA ratings went through the roof! To cite just two examples from last October, in the National League Wild Card Game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Pittsburgh Pirates, the U.S. HH rating on TBS was 3.57 (Rentrak 10/1/2013). The local DMA rating in Pittsburgh was 31.63! And the American League Wild Card Game between the Tampa Bay Rays vs. the Cleveland Indians achieved a 3.86 U.S. HH rating. Within the Cleveland-Akron DMA – 30.76 (Rentrak 10/2/2013).

Besides the obvious impact that a team can have on its hometown market’s viewing, we also found that markets in close geographic proximity to the home team DMA also experienced heightened ratings.  Moreover, there appears to be at least two other factors that can lift local market ratings: 1) Certain DMAs are just naturally strong baseball viewing markets; and, 2) Markets with strong viewing to TBS in general also have a higher than average viewing pattern for baseball.

Tremendous Surge in Local Cable Advertising

Locally, Viamedia has experienced a tremendous surge in cable advertising for the MLB Playoffs. Within the thirty-five markets in which we sold local adverting in the past two season, we have seen a +44% in spending (2013 v 2012).  And out of these thirty-five markets, two-thirds of them experienced an increase in local advertising. What’s behind the local market growth? A marked increase in the number of advertisers who invested in MLB playoff games: 245 in 2013 vs 180 in 2012 (+36%):

^{Source: Viamedia internal analysis of Sports & High Profile Tracker data for the MLB Playoffs (October 2013 v October 2012) across 35 markets that had MLB Playoff ad revenues for both years.}

Not surprisingly, local market ad expenditures (as a share of total Viamedia dollars) rocketed when the home market team appeared in the playoffs. Both the Boston Red Sox and the Tampa Bay Rays were out of the playoffs in 2012. That year, their two respective markets captured less than one-half of one percent of all Viamedia ad dollars for the 2012 MLB Playoffs. The next season, both teams made the playoffs (with the Red Sox eventually winning the World Series), driving local ad revenues in Boston and Tampa Bay to over 19% of total Viamedia revenues:

^{Source: Viamedia internal analysis of Sports & High Profile Tracker data for the MLB Playoffs (October 2013 v October 2012) for the Boston and Tamp Bay Markets. Base of comparison (to generate share figures) is the total Viamedia ad revenue amount for the 35 markets that had MLB Playoff ad revenues for both years.}

Unlike several other sports that we’ve looked at, the MLB Playoffs attract a much more dispersed level of local cable advertising across product categories. Typically, the automotive category captures 50% or more of total advertising, but over the past two seasons of MLB Playoffs, that figure is 27%, followed by tune-in advertising (18%); Hardware / Home Improvement (8%) and Financial Services (8%):

^{Source: Viamedia internal analysis of Sports & High Profile Tracker data for the MLB Playoffs (October 2013 and 2012 combined) across all 44 markets that had MLB Playoff ad revenues for at least one year.}

Here in the northeast, there are many who mark Labor Day as summer’s “last hurrah”. But I’m not one of them. I’ve still got green tomatoes on the vine and my summer doesn’t end until at least the Fall Baseball Classic, starting with the playoffs. Ten teams in all will make it out of the regular baseball season, generating fan excitement across the country and – especially – within the cities they represent. And based on what we’ve seen from our local advertisers over the past two seasons, they will be tapping into that fan enthusiasm with record investments in Major League post-season baseball.

– Written by Jonathan Sims, VP Media Research, Viamedia