Breaking news on the “baseball is dead” beat – MLB Network’s 2015 regular season was the most-watched in the network’s seven year history.
The season was quite beneficial for MLB Network, as it was up in nearly every timeslot and on every relevant day across the season. This year, MLB Network pulled in their most-watched Opening Day, Opening Week, and Trade Deadline Day, along with their most-watched regular season week. Each month from May through September, which is all but one month of the regular season, was the most-viewed ever in network history.
Nearly every live timeslot was up from 2014 as well. MLB Central’s debut season in the 10 AM-1 PM slot was up 64% from 2014. High Heat with Christopher Russo was up 40% in its second season. The Rundown, MLB Now, and Intentional Talk all gained in the afternoon, jumping by 27%, 20%, and 27% respectively.
MLB Tonight featured the smallest gain of all of the studio shows, jumping 4%, while Quick Pitch grew by a healthy 33%. Finally, the live game broadcasts on MLB Network were up 16%, showing this isn’t just some obsession with studio programming from viewers.
MLB Network will also be airing Game 2 of the Rangers-Blue Jays AL Division Series, and their intro video for the game is phenomenal, as their productions usually are. Michael Keaton narrated this.
You know who should be most encouraged by this? Hockey fans, actually. With MLB Network taking over a good chunk of NHL Network’s productions this year, they can definitely make NHL Network into a force like they have with MLB Network. It’s going to take awhile, and the success won’t be evident overnight, but it’s easy to see how a network that was an afterthought for much of its existence can become a must-watch for fans with just a few tweaks.
