• by Wayne Friedman , 69 minutes ago

Major League Baseball’s 2021 postseason has scored well to date, in terms of overall average viewers per game -- up 1% this year versus 2019.

Nielsen-measured postseason has averaged 3.67 million per game for 29 total games versus 2019 -- wild card, divisional, and league championship series games post-season contests.

This year is also up 62% versus a year ago, when it averaged 2.3 million viewers. Last year, 2020, MLB endured a severely pandemic-disrupted season where most baseball games were rescheduled, extending the late fall, having to compete with other major TV sports franchises -- the NBA and NFL, in particular.

This year, specific postseason rounds -- divisional and league championship series games -- has seen slippage. Divisional games were down 3% from 2019 to 2.91 million. League championship series were 5% lower to 4.68 million viewers.

What improved? Initial postseason “wild card” games. The biggest being the New York Yankees-Boston Red Sox -- one of the more storied rivalries -- which averaged 7.1 million viewers.

The other wild card contest was second-best so far this postseason: St.Louis Cardinals-Los Angeles Dodgers, averaging 6.7 million viewers.

National TV advertising revenue estimates for the postseason so far are $108.6 million, according to iSpot.tv -- coming from 8,362 commercial TV airings, resulting 11.9 billion total impression for all postseason games, not including the World Series.
This verses an estimated $131.5 million in 2019 postseason national TV ad spend -- 7,278 airings and 10.2 billion impressions.

Top advertisers this year: Geico, T-Mobile, Taco Bell, Progressive Insurance and Liberty Mutual.