Hey guys - a non-weather topic as we all miss live sports during these crazy days
I saw an article by David Murphy (Inquirer) where he was trying to find ways to "make baseball more watchable with a potential shortened season being discussed" as he opined that most people find baseball boring to watch on TV and are not interested in watching. Now, I know a lot of folks may indeed find it boring....but his statement made me go back and look at the facts regarding Philadelphia's viewing habits when it comes to live sports on TV available multiple times a week during the season. I am not including the Eagles as with it only on TV once a week it is not comparable.
I found the attached year end review of 2019 viewership on NBC Sports Philadelphia (the #1 cable network in Philadelphia). The facts say the Philadelphia area indeed finds baseball to be their favorite sport to watch on TV by a large margin over the other 2 major sports. Phillies games average well above both the Sixers in basketball and the Flyers in hockey for average live game viewership. This baseball ratings despite baseball being having twice as many games available to watch during the season.
In 2019 the Phillies averaged over 30% more viewers per game than the Sixers and a whopping 2x as many viewers as Flyers game viewership. In fact the Top 5 live games on the network were all Phillies games and for those that stream games the top 4 in the top 5 were Phillies games with only the Sixers cracking the top 5.https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/nbc-sports-philadelphia/nbc-sports-philadelphia-most-watched-cable-network-2019