Fox Message to Advertisers: World Series Still Has Lots of Value Despite Softer Viewership

Baseball fans may choose to argue the relative thrills of the recent World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Detroit Tigers. What can't be argued are the numbers for the telecasts on Fox: This year's Fall Classic proved to be the least viewed World Series in history, according to Nielsen data, averaging 12.7 million viewers per game.

But despite the ratings, Fox execs strongly believe the Series is still a highly valuable marketing event for advertisers. Mike Mulvihill, senior VP of programming and research, Fox Sports Media Group, says Fox's message to advertisers is that despite the drop, the World Series will continue to be a top 10 show among viewers and do even better among adults 18-49 and among men 18-49. "If you look at the World Series ratings, and compared them to all primetime programming season to date, it would rank sixth among adults 18-49 and second among men 18-49," he says. "There is still a lot of value there even though viewership is not what it was 30 or 40 years ago."