Series Is On, and Everybody’s Watching ... Football

The first game of the 2014 World Series drew just 12.2 million viewers to Fox, making it the lowest-rated Game 1 on record. Game 2 fared somewhat better, with 12.9 million people tuning in. More people watched “NCIS: New Orleans” and “The Big Bang Theory,” and -- for that matter -- “The Walking Dead,” the cable show about zombies. The audience for “Sunday Night Football,” a regular season game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Denver Broncos, was almost twice that of Games 1 or 2. Even a college football matchup -- Florida State University versus Notre Dame -- drew more viewers than either World Series game.

The low ratings highlight a number of trends in the sports and media industries. Above all, perhaps, is the rise of the NFL in the era of 24-hour sports television, and the growing popularity of football fantasy leagues and video games. On a more basic level, potential World Series viewers simply have more options than ever before, both in their ever-expanding cable packages and via online streaming services like Netflix. These numbers, provided by the Nielsen company, also reflect the fact that baseball is becoming an increasingly local sport. Unlike the NFL and the NBA, it derives a vast majority of its revenues not from nationally televised games, but rather from those shown on regional sports networks such as the YES Network in New York and Boston-based NESN.

The modest viewership thus far is partly a function of the matchup: the San Francisco Giants versus the Kansas City Royals. The Royals have one of the smallest TV markets in all of Major League Baseball. They are also pretty much devoid of boldface names, which may give the team added cachet among devotees but limits their appeal among casual fans.