👑 FOX Sitting Pretty on its Golden Throne

Murdoch couldn’t have drawn it up any better, his baby is dominating the airwaves just in time for the 2024 Election.

Unless the Yankees pull off the miracles of miracles and put together a Boston Red Sox-like comeback (see what we did there 😉), it’s safe to assume we’ll be seeing this World Series wrap up very soon in favor of the Dodgers. After going down 3-0 in the series, the Yankees finally got the bats going in Game 4 and responded with an 11-4 victory. But while the Big Apple faithful hope and pray for another victory this evening, the Murdoch family is sitting in their multi-million dollar living room looking up at those Australian Gods wondering how they got so lucky.

You see, it was only a year ago the MLB was essentially in the gutter coming off the worst viewership in World Series history. And FOX has been in the middle of that as they’ve owned the media rights to the World Series since 2000. So let’s review the turn around Fox has seen in just a year with the MLB. What are the driving factors for this change? Could this be a trend moving forward?

What type of viewership numbers have we been seeing from this World Series?

• According to media buyers, the average unit cost for a 30-second ad in this year’s World Series works out to between $350K-$520K per ad.

• Excluding local breaks, Fox is raking in ~$44M in ad sales revenue per broadcast, or ~$222M total if the Dodgers eliminate the Yankees tonight.

  • Even though that’s a good amount of money just from ad revenue, imagine if this series went the full distance (i.e. 7 games).

  • Where ad spots would increase dramatically. Historically, pricing increases kick-in with a sixth game with an even steeper lift for Game 7.

    • The going rate for a 30-second spot for Game 7 would likely average out to ~$625K 🤑. So yeah technically, the Murdoch’s could be sleeping better!

    • …oh let’s also not forget Fox also has the rights to this year’s Super Bowl.

  • What’s also interesting is how baseball is played, especially during the postseason where managers are more likely to use more pitchers. And when managers use more pitchers, that means more ad breaks for them to warm-up between batters.

    • No one uses more pitchers quite like the Dodgers and Yankees…and Fox is taking full advantage of both clubs’ bullpens, as the frequent breaks in the action have pushed the network’s average number of paid units up to ~93 spots per game.

• For Game 3, it was Fox’s best Monday prime-time telecast in more than a decade, beating everything on the network in that slot since Game 5 of the 2013 World Series between the Red Sox and Cardinals.

  • Through three games, the 2024 World Series is averaging 14.4M viewers and it remains on track as the event’s best total since 2017.

  • And to put a cherry on top of the sundae…Game 3 of the World Series officially won the viewership trophy for the day by out-dueling their Monday Night Football competition between the Giants and Steelers, which drew an average of 13.4M on ESPN and ABC.

  • MLB beating the NFL in viewership?!? Is this the upside down world?!

• Let’s also not count out what we’ve been seeing overseas from Japan, as they continue to root for their superstar, Shohei Ohtani.

  • After registering average game totals of 12.9M and 12.1M during key parts of the National League Division Series and NL Championship Series, the World Series ratings have jumped in Japan.

  • The opener drew an average Japanese audience of 14.4M (in the U.S. it was 15.2M), which was then beaten the following evening during Game 2 at 15.9M (in the U.S. it was 13.8M).

What has been working for the MLB?

• Of course it helps this matchup is between two of the biggest media markets in the entire U.S, but we have to give the MLB their flowers!

• The MLB continues to make significant strides with younger audiences domestically.

• While the World Series viewership average thus far is up by 63% compared to last year’s, there has been a 93% bump in viewers ages 18 to 34.

  • That spike is the largest seen thus far for the event in any age demographic.

  • The league’s social media platforms additionally have registered more than 345M views through Game 2, a figure up by 229% from the comparable games to start the 2023 World Series.

Overall, we can’t give Murdoch and Co. all the credit. Sometimes you just get a little lucky with matchup and timing. And with Election Night right around the corner, it’s no wonder the Fox executives can’t stop smiling. Because there’s no doubt they will capitalize on the ad revenue during election night as the majority of their right-leaning viewers rely on them as a network.

It’s going to seem like America will have Fox bookmarked as a favorite channel through the end of October and beginning of November. And the Murdoch’s will keep cashing their ad revenue checks.

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