What needs to be done to increase Saturday baseball ratings on FOX?

[SabresRule]

Mets82 just gave us a link showing how FOX's Saturday Baseball ratings have been in freefall.

Granted, it's not as bad as CBS' coverage was, but ratings for baseball on weekends are abysmal.

What do you think could be done to rescue the ratings?

 

[Mets82]

BTW, thank you for responding so fast, Sabres.

To answer your question, I think they should put a variety of teams on Fox Sat. instead of the same teams over and over again. For ex., there's NO WAY that the Yankees/Red Sox should've been shown on the final Sat. of the year. Now, I know the other game was the Mets but at least they had something to play for. And what happened? The Yankee game got rained out and FOX wound up showing the game that they should've shown in the first place.

 

[tjguitar]

They'd have to stop EVERY team from airing local games on Saturday's, basically.



I don't give two pennies about the FOX Saturday Game of the Week unless the Angels are on. ESPN's Sunday Night game is the true game of the week since no other games are happening a that time, or later that evening.

 

[CharlesO]

There's little that FOX can do.

Currently ESPN has games 3 times a week, a game a week on TBS and whatever games that your local RSN is showing that week plus next year the MLB Channel joins the fray. Add FOX to the mix and most people have about a dozen games a week available to them, the premium for the FOX telecast just doesn't exist anymore.

 

[mccoyrj]

Mets82 just gave us a link showing how FOX's Saturday Baseball ratings have been in freefall...What do you think could be done to rescue the ratings?

That's a tough one. Baseball is the type of game where you have to really be a huge fan of the sport to watch just any teams. The pace of the game can get slow. It's like golf - not just anyone can sit and watch it for that long.

 

[cybok0]

Since the Pirates are so pitiful, they are never on Fox Saturday baseball. So I don't watch it.

 

[mccoyrj]

Since the Pirates are so pitiful, they are never on Fox Saturday baseball. So I don't watch it.

I hear that. That's the only reason I've been subscribing to MLB EI, but after this year I may finally be cancelling it. Bay was one of the big reasons I kept watching, and I'm tired of them unloading every year. I'll still go to PNC for a few games each year, but i may be done watching on the tube until they improve.

 

[SabresRule]

mccoy,

at least you have the Penguins and the Bayou Bengals.

 

[cybok0]

I hear that. That's the only reason I've been subscribing to MLB EI, but after this year I may finally be cancelling it. Bay was one of the big reasons I kept watching, and I'm tired of them unloading every year. I'll still go to PNC for a few games each year, but i may be done watching on the tube until they improve.

It's funny, from the first game of the year till the Steelers training camp I watch every game on FSN and I do go to at least one game a year.

But by the time training camp starts the Pirates are out of it big time and I'm so pissed off i stop watching them.

 

[mccoyrj]

It's funny, from the first game of the year till the Steelers training camp I watch every game on FSN and I do go to at least one game a year.

But by the time training camp starts the Pirates are out of it big time and I'm so pissed off i stop watching them.

I know what you mean. At least the good part about going to PNC is the food, beer, nice view, and every now and then you get those old feelings back when the Bucs have a walkoff win. But if the prices keep going up for all that stuff, I may cut down on that as well.

 

[mccoyrj]

mccoy,

at least you have the Penguins and the Bayou Bengals.

Yep. Kind of a weird combination isn't it?

And don't forget the Steelers.

I just got Steelers/Bengals tickets given to me by my disgruntled Bengal fan neighbor about 5 minutes ago. He just walked up and rang my doorbell, asked if I wanted the tickets, gave them to me and said enjoy!

 

[cjwct]

My two cents: like ESPN and MNF, leave the last 8 Saturdays to flex scheduling . . . or how is this: a month before the game, we vote on Fox's website which game we want and that's the game they show

 

[jerseyfla]

Be serious about the Saturday telecasts and have 2 or 3 teams that love the game so much that they would broadcast all 26 weeks because I don't think the same teams broadcasted in the booth in consecutive weeks this year on Fox, hell there were some non-regulars like Mike Joy and Chris Rose doing play-by-play. Remember when GOTW on NBC only had two broadcasting teams Scully and Garagiola and Costas and Kubek? I think Fox has shown some disinterest in GOTW and it's rubbed off on the fans somewhat. I think Fox needs to have just 2 games a week and have two broadcasting teams that will not have NFL or Nascar work interfere with doing their duties week in and week out.

 

[SamCdbs]

Saturday afternoon baseball just is not going to be what it was back in the day. In major markets, Saturday afternoon was the only opertunity to see a team other than the locals. In many smaller markets, it was the only chance to see TV baseball at all. And, in the 3 channel universe, it was generally up against the pro bowlers tour and golf. Now there are 40 sports choices and 20+ baseball games on TV per week.

However, Fox can do better.

- Fire Tim McCarver.

- Flex scheduling.

- Have some different teams. Fox seems to think that baseball is somehow "super-regional". Such that if the closest teams is not play, the 2nd or 3rd closest team is people's 2nd or 3rd choice, or, put another way, a White Sox game is signifcant in St. Louis over a Mets game. It just is not.

- To heck with regionalism at all. Have a single game of national significance, at 1 ET, with a 4 ET back up for the west coast and markets where the local Fox has some syndication or something.

 

[Hemi 6.1]

What do you think could be done to rescue the ratings?

FOOTBALL

 

[AntAltMike]

They need to carry games with match-ups involving Koufax, Marichal and Gibson. That's what they used to do when I last watched, "Game of the Week" regularly. If that can't be arranged, the ratings will go up a little if they carry more games involving the Red Sox, Yankees and Mets. Sorry.

Back in the early 1990s a friend of mine in his mid 40s who fancied himself as a lifetime baseball addict became enraged when I told him that NBC was considering dropping the Game of the Week. He wanted to organize a letter writing campaign to the network to save it. He did not realize that his own local NBC affiliate had already dropped it a couple of years earlier in favor of Creature-Double-Feature, which they could make more money off because they owned all the commercial breaks.

To steal a line from John Kenneth Galbraith, the Game of the Week enjoys the obscurity it so richly deserves. Baseball is no longer the American past-time. I haven't seen a bunch of kids playing baseball in a neighborhood pick-up game since, well, the last time I was in such a game about 40 years ago. Anybody who wants to watch any game involving any team can watch that game on cable of some sort.

In football, the significance of regular season games is often expressed in the phrase, "there's no tomorrow", but in baseball, with its 162 game season, there are lots of tomorrows, so most regular season games will never be important enough to the general public to allocate 3 hours on a Saturday watch them.

 

[cybok0]

I know what you mean. At least the good part about going to PNC is the food, beer, nice view, and every now and then you get those old feelings back when the Bucs have a walkoff win. But if the prices keep going up for all that stuff, I may cut down on that as well.

I went to Jerrome's restaurant last time I went to a game, the food is damn good.

 

[cybok0]

Yep. Kind of a weird combination isn't it?

And don't forget the Steelers.

I just got Steelers/Bengals tickets given to me by my disgruntled Bengal fan neighbor about 5 minutes ago. He just walked up and rang my doorbell, asked if I wanted the tickets, gave them to me and said enjoy!

So where am I meeting you next Sunday? That's a hell of a B-day present, thanks.