DownSwinging.com

When I woke up this morning I got an email telling me to check out an article in the Financial Times about the TV ratings for the NBA Finals. If you don’t feel like reading it, basically it talked about the fact that the NBA Finals ratings are up this year, which is a little surprising given the current economic climate, but then again not that surprising considering that its a good matchup that involves a large-market team like the Lakers.

So after reading that, I started wondering what the recession’s effect on other sports’ television audiences was. My first inclination was that sports are, in fact, recession-proof, because it doesn’t really cost much to watch a game (on TV, that is. Prepare to pick up a second job if you think you’re going to attend Fenway or Yankee Stadium anytime soon) and people are very loyal to their sports teams. So I decided to venture out into, well, the internet to find out how professional sports are faring.

Hockey, in the middle of its finals, is pleased with their current ratings, albeit it smaller than other sports would expect for a championship series. The NFL saw a higher viewership than ever for SuperBowl XLIII, though interestingly there was a slightly lower number of households tuning in (I guess people are huddling together for warmth). Just as a side note from that article, if you wanted one 30-second commercial spot during the Super Bowl this year you had to drop a cool $3 million, another record. And, as mentioned above, the NBA Finals are (and the conference championships) are doing well this year.

But what about baseball? It turns out that MLB ratings are down this year, 9 percent down in fact. According to that story, attendance is down 4 percent at games as well, but that’s no shock, its way more expensive to attend a game than to sit on your couch with a beer (that cost you 1 dollar and not 9) and watch on TV. But, apparently, TV ratings are still down, and are way down from the steroid-inflated TV ratings of 2000. FOX is brainstorming strategies to pump up the audience, but it seems that maybe as hockey and basketball pick up viewers again, baseball is losing ground. I suppose it’s only natural, this ebb and flow of sports interest. We are coming off of the World Series with the lowest viewership ever.

As a response, Major League Baseball has moved up the start times of World Series and ALCS games (what the NLCS is doing, I don’t know) before 8 p.m. EST, in hopes of catching more viewers. And I thought it was for the poor kids on the East Coast that didn’t get to watch any of the World Series beyond the first inning (a painful part of my childhood). I suppose I don’t really care if baseball ratings are down a little bit, as long as the keep the games coming, I’ll be happy.