With Major League Baseball starting the second half of the season, the league is seeing rosy numbers in television viewership, digital streaming, attendance, and a shift to a younger age demographic, reports Forbes. While there are multiple factors that affect all these categories, rule changes designed to quicken pace and increase action seem to be a large part of it.
It was impossible to ignore Rob Manfred’s positivity at the halfway point in the 2023 season. In Seattle for the All-Star Game, he said that the 2023 season might be one of the best since he took over as commissioner. By nearly every metric, the league is seeing gains. After nine years of attendance declines, 2023 is well on the way to breaking that trend. While everything from weather to how certain bellwether teams are performing in the standings, when coupled with other metrics, it is starting to look like the addition of a pitch clock, ban on radical shifts, limited throws to first base by pitchers when a runner is on it, and bigger bases is driving more action and removing lulls.
Through July 9th, a 9-inning game has been 26 minutes shorter than 2022 and 32 minutes shorter than when game length peaked in 2021. And while there have been concerns about pitch clock violations affecting game outcomes, 60% of the games thus far this season have had no violations while just 12% have seen multiple offenses. Games are now down to the overall game length for 9 innings seen in 1984.
On top of pace quickening, action has increased. Stolen base attempts have increased to 1.8 per game thus far in 2023, and successful steals are the highest in MLB history. In addition Batting Average on Balls in Play (BABIP) is currently up 7 points compared to 2022. And when it comes to left-handed hitters, they’re feasting. Pulled ground balls and line drives by BABIP is up by 40 points and 33 points respectively.
⚾Local Television Viewership Increasing Despite Consumers Cutting The Cord
Arguably the biggest reason for the rule changes was designed to retain viewers watching via television and streaming, as well as bring new fans in. Manfred said on Tuesday that in a challenging media landscape, the league is seeing viewership trending upward.
“Our national ratings are up and also importantly, our local ratings despite the fact that the local cable audience — the universe of available homes — are down,” Manfred said. “We continue to dominate summer programming in our local markets which is really important.”
Based on data from Playfly Sports, the full-service marketing company MLB works closely wirh, ratings for the 29 U.S.-based regional sports networks (RSNs) is up +3% over 2022 despite the fact that all RSNs have lost between 7-13% in subscribers year-over-year. In a sign that MLB continues to dominate with advertisers, MLB game viewing on RSNs in the 25 MLB markets accounts for +125% more viewing than the top 10 prime entertainment shows combined in those markets. As but one example, in the Cleveland market, Guardians games combine to deliver more viewing than the top 30 prime entertainment shows combined in the same area.
Big gainers are led by the Baltimore Orioles who have seen viewership up +86% over the same point last season (avg of 42.5K vs. 22.9K HHs). Not far behind are the Texas Rangers who are up +82% year-over-year (avg 39.2K vs. 21.5K HHs).
Other gainers include:
- Pittsburgh Pirates: up +73% YOY (52.5K vs. 30.3K HHs)
- Cincinnati Reds: up +40% YOY (38.7K vs. 27.7K HHs)
- Tampa Bay Rays: up +33% YOY (68.0K vs. 51.1K HHs)
- Arizona Diamondbacks: up +30% YOY (25.5K vs. 19.7K HHs)
- Seattle Mariners: +25% YOY (75.0K vs. 59.9K HHs)
- Minnesota Twins: +18% YOY (58.4K vs. 49.6K HHs)
- Atlanta Braves: up +18% YOY (81.5K vs. 69.3K HHs)
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