Jump to content

2023 WBC Tournament


Recommended Posts

I saw a tweet last night that speculated that the championship game will be the most watched baseball game in history due mainly to the viewership in Japan.

They showed numbers of previous big Japanese national games and they were close to the record but considering they're playing in the championship and against USA between their audience and ours it should top the record. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Tigeraholic1 said:

But I hear the WBC is a waste of time…

 

Yeah I think that was the tweet I saw but looking in the comments of the tweet I see that a couple people brought up the point that it will be broadcasted at 8am on a weekday in Japan so even though they are crazy about baseball you would think that surely that is going to effect viewership. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The viewership in the U.S. will be a great litmus test for interest in baseball.  I suspect the majority of people have not been paying attention or are even aware of tonight’s game.

”Get Up” on ESPN led off their program with Women’s NCAA basketball and followed that up with the Knicks game last night.  No mention of yesterday’s WBC game, or tonight’s USA v Japan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

The viewership in the U.S. will be a great litmus test for interest in baseball.  I suspect the majority of people have not been paying attention or are even aware of tonight’s game.

”Get Up” on ESPN led off their program with Women’s NCAA basketball and followed that up with the Knicks game last night.  No mention of yesterday’s WBC game, or tonight’s USA v Japan.

Viewership would probably go way up if it was available to the ever-increasing demographic of cord cutters.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Does viewership in the US really matter that much to MLB?   

The soaring numbers in Asia and Latin America have to bode well for the goal of marketing the stars of the game in areas outside of the US.   

I’ve enjoyed the tournament.  It’s been great baseball of a high quality.  So much better than watching the all-star game.   I really hope the 2 major injuries don’t turn GM’s into assholes when it comes time to release players for the next one.    

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

It should, if they care about the health of the product in their core market

I get that but I don’t believe growing the core was the main intention of the WBC.   If it was they wouldn’t have started all the USA pool games at 10PM EST with the Latin teams taking the marquee 7PM slot.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Hongbit said:

Does viewership in the US really matter that much to MLB

But it's not eyeball numbers alone that are important - it's really eyeballs x purchasing power behind each set of eyeballs. So markets like the US and Japan are going to be overweighted compared to most of Central and Latin America. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, Hongbit said:

I get that but I don’t believe growing the core was the main intention of the WBC.   If it was they wouldn’t have started all the USA pool games at 10PM EST with the Latin teams taking the marquee 7PM slot.  

My point was the health/interest in baseball in the US, where the owners get the majority of their revenue.  I agree that it’s encouraging that baseball is becoming more international and there may be a future where the MLB expands into other markets.

However, disappointing US ratings for tonight does not portend well.  The USA team is loaded with superstars and Japan has the game’s most exciting player.  This really should be must-see TV, even for the most casual of baseball fans.  I do hope the ratings reflect this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

21 minutes ago, Tenacious D said:

My point was the health/interest in baseball in the US, where the owners get the majority of their revenue.  I agree that it’s encouraging that baseball is becoming more international and there may be a future where the MLB expands into other markets.

However, disappointing US ratings for tonight does not portend well.  The USA team is loaded with superstars and Japan has the game’s most exciting player.  This really should be must-see TV, even for the most casual of baseball fans.  I do hope the ratings reflect this.

They planned the final games well. In between rounds of March Madness. Nothing sports related to watch the last few days besides WBC.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, gehringer_2 said:

But it's not eyeball numbers alone that are important - it's really eyeballs x purchasing power behind each set of eyeballs. So markets like the US and Japan are going to be overweighted compared to most of Central and Latin America. 

This dynamic is a little different in Mexico, Caribbean, and Central America.  These are poor countries and the individual purchasing power is significantly lower.  There are a few global corporations operating in all of these places with multi million dollar marketing and branding opportunities for MLB to partner.  That is the money play and they can help offset the limited spending power per eyeball.   The executives that hold the purse strings can also be bought easily with a few perks from MLB to ensure really nice deals too.   

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...