Baltimore Orioles: Why TV ratings were down in 2017

The Baltimore Orioles had their worst season in since 2011 when the record was 69-93 so it is no surprise that the team’s TV ratings were down.

Honestly, it is easy to understand why Baltimore Orioles fans might choose to spend their limited amount of free time doing something else.

According to Forbes.com, the Orioles viewership was down by 26%. And, the Orioles – who had the fourth highest ratings in 2016 – fell to the fifth spot in 2017. The teams with more viewers in 2017 include (in order) the Cleveland Indians, Kansas City Royals, St. Louis Cardinals, and the Boston Red Sox. Just below the Orioles in sixth place were the Detroit Tigers.

Now, considering the quality of baseball played by the Orioles in 2017, it was a pleasant surprise to see them finish as high as they did. There is no question that the Indians would be near the top when it came to viewers in 2017, especially with the suspense of the winning streak. What was surprising about the 2017 TV rankings was the fact that the Los Angeles Dodgers finished in 25th place as their 104 wins could not draw more viewers. I guess winning gets boring after a while.

So, why would the Orioles see such a large reduction in TV viewers?

Good baseball draws viewers

I would have liked to see a monthly breakdown of the season, but I’m going out on a limb and guessing that more people watched the Orioles in April and August than the other months. Why? The Orioles played good baseball in April and fans want their fill after a baseball-free off-season. And why August? Because of Manny Machado, Tim Beckham, and Jeremy Hellickson. Seeing fresh faces and watching a fan favorite hit home run after home run gives fans a reason to tune in.

I’m also going to guess that after a few days in September, fans stopped watching. It isn’t that they aren’t loyal to the team, but Orioles baseball in September was not worth watching. After September 5th, which happened to be a walk-off win against the Yankees, the Orioles fell apart. There were only four wins in the rest of the month as the pitching fell apart and runs were not scored. In fact, after September 5, there were 11 games where the Orioles scored two runs or fewer. That’s hardly worth watching.

Orioles still did well

So, when the TV ratings were announced, it was actually a surprise to see that the Orioles finished in such a high position in relation to the rest of the MLB. Their 5.43 rating was higher than the Washington Nationals and their 12th place 3.12 rating.

Keep in mind that all hope is not lost. When baseball is on TV, this is true:

Major League Baseball continues to rank #1 on television in the local markets where teams play https://t.co/Y8KxnnZHFK
— Maury Brown (@BizballMaury) October 10, 2017

It seems like baseball fans want to watch good baseball as the rest of the teams that finished near the bottom saw big drops in their ratings, too. According to Maury Brown with Forbes,

"The Marlins were behind only the Tigers with a drop of -30% on FOX Sports Florida & Sun from 2016. Other decliners were the Texas Rangers on FOX Sports SW and San Francisco Giants on CSN Bay Area (-28%), Pittsburgh Pirates (-27% on AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh), and Baltimore Orioles (-26% on MASN)."

Who can blame fans for not watching their favorite teams lose over and over again? Even the ticket sales for the Orioles dropped as it seemed like the team had given up. According to Baseball Reference, the Orioles only sold 23,424 seats. Remember, Camden Yards has seats for over 45,000 fans.

Next: Breaking down Ubaldo Jimenez in 2017

Hopefully, all of the MLB teams are taking note of the recently released TV ratings. It should be a clear lesson on the quality of the product. Fans want suspense. They want to see runs scored. They want good pitching. They want action. They also want to see more than just home runs. It was interesting that in the “Year of the Home Run” TV ratings were down 6% compared to 2016.

Home/Orioles News