Austin Karp

Morning Buzz: World Series Game 7 tracking for best MLB audience since 2017

Early data shows that Game 7 of the Dodgers-Blue Jays World Series drew 25.5 million viewers on Fox, marking the best MLB game since Game 7 of the Astros-Dodgers World Series in 2017 (28.3 million). That figure is a fast national, panel-only number and will rise when the Nielsen Big Data number comes in. A source tells SBJ that increase is likely be a low single-digit percentage bump.

ESPN networks are going dark on YouTube TV, as Google and Disney could not come to a carriage agreement nor an extension before the deadline for the entire suite of Disney networks. Sources close to the talks tell SBJ that negotiations toward the deadline were “not productive.” The key issue here remains pricing and not ingestion, which was a key point in the recent NBCU-YouTube TV deal. Sources said that Google seeks pricing closer to what larger carriers like Comcast and Charter have received. Industry estimates have YouTube TV currently in around 10 million U.S. homes, but MoffettNathanson has predicted the vMVPD would likely become the biggest domestic pay TV provider sometime next year.

This is the first season of a future-altering media rights extension that the Big 12 struck with ESPN and Fox back in 2022.

MLS game viewership on Apple TV and other sources shows the league was up 29% year-over-year for regular-season weekend game audiences this season. In some of the first viewership data to be released publicly, MLS shared with SBJ that it had an average of 3.7 million global viewers for all Saturday/Sunday games in what were mainly primetime windows. The audience also includes English- and Spanish-language game telecasts, and the game audiences are also aggregated. The number doesn’t account for any Leagues Cup games and excludes midweek games, which presumably have a smaller audience.

The return of the NBA on NBC helped deliver the best opening night since 2011, when a lockout saw the season open on Christmas with five games across the day on TNT, ABC and ESPN.

With the expiration of a carriage deal between Disney and YouTube TV a week away, the company has started to put messaging on its airwaves, including ESPN, about the potential end of the deal, which would have major implications for around 10 million YouTube TV subscribers.

An expanded FIFA Men’s World Cup this coming summer will see 69 of 104 matches aired on Fox, easily marking a broadcast TV record for the tournament on English-language airwaves. That figure will account for 66% of the total matches, up from 53% back in 2022 for the winter event from Qatar (34 matches), which conflicted with NFL and college football coverage.

The return of football in September helped broadcast TV -- with a third of its programming being sports -- pass cable for the first time in terms of monthly percentage of TV viewing (dating back to 2021), according to new data from the Nielsen Gauge. The gap was incredibly close, with broadcast edging out cable TV by less than a hundredth of a point.

How will NBA viewership respond to new media deals this season?