MLB
regular-season viewership bounced back from 2020 for the league’s big national media partners, but was still slightly below the 2019 season, per SBJ’s
Austin Karp
.
Fox
averaged 2.36 million viewers for its package of games (Saturday nights primarily), up 42% from 1.67 million last season, but down 2% from 2.4 million in 2019 (its best since 2012). Fox was above the 2.23 million from 2018. This season featured the first
Field of Dreams Game
on Fox, while 2019 included the a
London
matchup with the
Yankees
and
Red Sox
. When games on
FS1
are included,
Fox Sports
averaged 872,000 viewers for the season, up 61% from 542,000 in 2020 and up 2% from 2019 (853,000).
ESPN
averaged 1.44 million viewers for its “
Sunday
Night Baseball
” slate this season, up 22% from the abbreviated schedule in 2020 (1.18 million for only 10 games). But this year’s number is down from 1.6 million in 2019. “SNB” was up 17 among males 18-34 vs. 2020, and up 11% compared to 2019.
TBS
averaged around 290,000 for its 16 non-exclusive Sunday afternoon telecasts, flat compared to 2020 (only 10 games), and down 16% vs. 347,000 for 13 games in 2019. One reason for the drop on TBS was a dearth of
Cubs
games (zero in 2021 vs. three in 2019).