Baseball, A Hit In The Stands, A Disappointment On TV
For the fourth time in seven years, last week's World Series coverage hit a new low in the ratings, attracting 15.8 million viewers, down from 17.2 million last year, according to preliminary figures from Nielsen Research. Moreover, Fox's telecast of Game 3 of the series wound up with fewer viewers than ABC's Dancing With the Stars. Asked about the defeat to Dancing, Fox spokesman Lou D'Ermilio observed in an interview with today's (Monday) Wall Street Journal: "Is that phenomenon not unlike the Olympics losing to American Idol? I think there's some comparison." Nevertheless, the newspaper noted that despite the World Series downturn, baseball is continuing to thrive, tallying a record 76 million tickets sold during the past season and additional revenue from regional advertising, licensing, international sales, and the Internet. "The clubs have been extraordinarily creative in creating new revenue streams," MLB President and COO Bob Dupuy told the Journal.