MLB Network is experiencing significant viewership increases in its sixth year of existence. Broadcasting & Cable magazine reports that April was MLBN’s most-watched regular-season month in the network’s history. MLBN averaged 253,000 viewers in primetime up 30% from last April. Its entire day average viewership in April 2014 was 126,000 and that’s a 48% hike from last year. Those numbers make MLB Network one of the top cable networks in terms of viewer growth for last month.
All of MLB Network’s original studio programming in both daytime and primetime posted significant gains in April:
- The Rundown (2-4 p.m. ET) was up 80% from last year.
- MLB Now with Brian Kenny (4-5 p.m.) experienced a 30% gain from last April’s viewership.
- Intentional Talk with Chris Rose and Kevin Millar (5-6 p.m.) appears to be hitting its stride with a 68% audience increase from April 2013.
- MLB Tonight in primetime averaged 179,000 viewers up 39% from last April.
- Quick Pitch airing in late night and hosted mainly by Heidi Watney, garnered an average audience of 127,000 for its live airings. That’s up 38% from April 2013.
- Even the new High Heat (1-2 p.m.) hosted by SiriusXM’s Chris Russo, improved on its timeslot by a whopping 83% from April 2013. High Heat replaced mainly taped programming.
Live game broadcasts are also experiencing double digit increases. They’re averaging 267,000 viewers and that is up 15% from last April.
MLB Network says in the key demographic groups of 18-34, 18-49 and 25-54, viewership is up by an average of 51%. Advertisers sit up and take notice when they see such a huge increase.
The higher viewership comes against stiff competition such as the NBA and NHL postseasons. And both the NBA and NHL have also seen increases from last year.
Major League Baseball officials have to be encouraged with the higher numbers for MLBN as well as ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball which had a 7% viewership increase for its first five games of the 2014 season and averaged over 2 million viewers.
While it is early, for MLB Network to get such strong numbers out of the gate in the first month of the regular season has to give its executives some encouragement for the rest of the season. And if MLB Network pulls decent numbers this month especially with the NFL Draft as well as the second month of the NBA and NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs, we could say this might be the beginning of an upward trend.
The numbers for May will tell an interesting story for MLB Network.
