FOX's coverage of the 2012 World Series saw the Fall Classic's lowest recorded ratings ever. The Giants four-game sweep of the Tigers averaged a 7.6 rating with 12.7 million viewers. That is down 24% from last years Cardinals-Rangers seven game series, which average a 10 rating and 16.6 million viewers. These are the lowers totals for the series in final ratings (2008 and 2010 averaged 8.4) and viewers (2008 averaging 13.6 million). For 2012, these numbers trailed the NCAA tournaments Final Four weekend, the 5 game NBA Finals series between the Heat-Thunder and all five BCS bowl games including the championship.
And despite the spin FOX places in releases or media flaks in sugarcoating the news, the downtrend appears to get worse every year (8 record lows since the the strike of 1994). And doesn't appear to get any better in future years. It does appear that it won't be long before MLB joins the NBA and NHL and baseball become almost exclusively a cable sport with less over the air broadcast or promotion, which is the basis of the renewal of their contracts with FOX, TBS and ESPN in 2014.
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