Sports TV
This season, baseball's a tougher sell
By Kevin Downey
Apr 6, 2009 - 8:03:28 AM

Opening the new baseball season, the Atlanta Braves got themselves an easy win last night against World Series-champs Philadelphia Phillies, 4 to 1.

If only it were as easy for the networks airing the bulk of the games this season.

Up against a tanked economy and a decline in ratings last year, Fox, ESPN and TBS are in for a harder slog selling ad time for the regular season.

While it won't likely turn out to be a disastrous season, they'll do well to finish out flat to last year in total sales.

To get those sales, the networks are working with advertisers, tossing in added-value packages like space on their web sites and in-game graphics, and that's so even for last-minute advertisers.

With budgets tight, advertisers are scrutinizing media buys as never before, looking for outlets that will deliver the most return on their investment, and that's led to more last-minute buys.

“Clients are getting budgets released late and we at Turner are preparing sponsorship platforms in anticipation of late budgets,” says Jon Diament, executive vice president of Turner Sports ad sales and marketing. “They can get sponsor opportunities that are strategic and integrated, even if it’s last minute.”

Says Ed Goren, president of Fox Sports: “Commitments are coming in later. Having said that, we’re feeling very positive.”

Sellers are also struggling because of cutbacks from ad categories like auto and financial services that in past years spent heavily on sports and baseball in particular.

What’s saving regular season baseball, along with other sports, is heavy spending by categories like fast food, beer and telecom that aren’t feeling the sting of the economic slump nearly as much.

“We’re seeing demand being consistent with how it was in the past,” says Eric Johnson, executive vice president of multimedia sales at ESPN. “And with all our multimedia outlets, we’re constantly creating value by bringing in digital, mobile and the magazine to create new types of sponsorships.”

Baseball is likely to struggle more on local television stations than national outlets, says Scott Becher, president of Sports & Sponsorships, a sports marketing company.

“I think the economy will significantly impact local baseball ad spending, less so national,” he says. “In many local markets, there is simply more inventory than a soft economy can support. Pricing and placement will be more negotiable than ever in a challenging sales environment.”

One thing working in baseball's favor this season is the expectation that ratings will be up over last season, with cash-strapped consumers opting to stay home rather than go out and spend money.

“MLB should be a safe ratings bet this season,” says Becher. “The economy should only positively impact ratings as fans more closely consider spending discretionary income on attending a game.”

Last year ratings were down. MLB games on Fox pulled an average 1.6 rating among men, off from a 2 the prior season, according to an analysis of Nielsen ratings by buying agency Magna. Ratings slipped slightly on cable networks ESPN, ESPN2 and TBS.

“There’s a lot of audience fragmentation out there,” says Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media. “But I would anticipate ratings will be similar to last year.”