Big audience for the Phillies

[cyber]

In-Home Listening Propels Phillies Radio Broadcasts To A 40-Share.

Fresh data from Nielsen illustrates the massive appeal of playoff baseball on live radio and the tight bond fans have with their local radio play-by-play announcers. Broadcasts of the Philadelphia

www.insideradio.com

 

[davideduardo]

In-Home Listening Propels Phillies Radio Broadcasts To A 40-Share.

Fresh data from Nielsen illustrates the massive appeal of playoff baseball on live radio and the tight bond fans have with their local radio play-by-play announcers. Broadcasts of the Philadelphia

www.insideradio.com

That is actually bad, bad news. If a ball game on radio gets a 40 share, it means that the rest of radio listening is so small now that audio-only play-by-play gets nearly half the listening means that very little "normal" listening is taking place.

 

[pjc1961]

To be fair, all the numbers cited are for Men 25-54 only for the two night games in the Wild Card Round.
Having said that, I agree with David that the likely overall listening level is decreasing.

 

[KeithE4]

That is actually bad, bad news.

Not for WIP-FM. 😁

If a ball game on radio gets a 40 share, it means that the rest of radio listening is so small now that audio-only play-by-play gets nearly half the listening means that very little "normal" listening is taking place.

It shows me that baseball on radio is still viable.

 

[AbrahamJSimpson]

We got a 100% increase! Went all the way from 1 to 2, but still, it’s 100%!

 

[MarkW]

Not bad news at all; this is no different than how the Super Bowl affects TV ratings. It is not at all surprising that many men who were unable to be in front of a TV set during these two games tuned into the radio broadcast. TV viewers who prefer local broadcasters to the national TV network broadcasters may have also elected to mute their TV audio in favor of 94.1's audio.

It is indisputable that Philadelphia is one of the best sports cities in America, if not the very best sports city in America.

 

[fybush]

It is indisputable that Philadelphia is one of the best sports cities in America, if not the very best sports city in America.

One of? Absolutely.

"The?" Consider WBZ-FM, in a market significantly smaller than Philly, with a vigorous in-format competitor, and yet still right up there in the top 10 absolute revenue producing radio stations anywhere in America.

 

[Larry]

That is actually bad, bad news. If a ball game on radio gets a 40 share, it means that the rest of radio listening is so small now that audio-only play-by-play gets nearly half the listening means that very little "normal" listening is taking place.

I don’t think it’s bad news as radio listenership is probably at least 50% higher if not double the number of listeners on a typical weeknight so it’s probably 40% of a much larger pie (number of listeners). I would expect some shifting from listeners to high rated stations with large male audiences such as WMMR and WMGK as well as WPEN-FM but im sure many of the listeners wouldn’t have radio on at home between 8-11 PM

 

[TheBigA]

One story I'm hearing is that the cord cutters are using radio to keep up with the Phillies without paying for Max.

 

[MarkW]

One of? Absolutely.

"The?" Consider WBZ-FM, in a market significantly smaller than Philly, with a vigorous in-format competitor, and yet still right up there in the top 10 absolute revenue producing radio stations anywhere in America.

Boston without question is right up there, but one thing that strikes me about Philly is how fans would still show up for Sixers games during that team's lengthy slump.

 

[andygradel]

Some of this might also be attributed to cord-cutting. The Phils have been on TBS for the past couple weeks. Unless someone is ponying up $20 a month for Max or has cable, there's no other way to watch.

 

[davideduardo]

I don’t think it’s bad news as radio listenership is probably at least 50% higher if not double the number of listeners on a typical weeknight so it’s probably 40% of a much larger pie (number of listeners). I would expect some shifting from listeners to high rated stations with large male audiences such as WMMR and WMGK as well as WPEN-FM but im sure many of the listeners wouldn’t have radio on at home between 8-11 PM

Remember, "share" is the percent of radio listeners using one particular station or group of stations. There are always 100 shares, whether 20% of the market persons are listening (as was the average around 2000) or 5% (which is the average today).

"Rating" is the percentage of all persons, listening or not, using a station in a particular age, gender or ethnic range or daypart. Rating averages around 5% to 6% of share today, so a share of 5 is a rating of around 0.3 (varying by +/- 0.1 depending on the market).

 

[HGN2001]

The Phils have been on TBS for the past couple weeks. Unless someone is ponying up $20 a month for Max or has cable, there's no other way to watch.

Well...there are ways, and without too much difficulty. I currently live in Florida and subscribe to MLB.tv, but that gets me nothing in the way of video for the playoff games - they're all blacked out until 90 minutes after the game ends.

So, MLB.tv can provide me with the WIP-FM audio coverage of the game. For video, I must rely on an Internet feed and watch on my computer. I could HDMI it over to the TV, but that's a bother. Easier just to sit in front of the desktop computer and watch. Synching the audio with the video is usually problematic since the Internet video feed is "usually" ahead of MLB's audio. Occasionally the audio gets ahead and I can slow it down to synch it, but usually I'm content to hear the WIP audio even out of synch, rather than listen to the TBS announcers.

I won't divulge my video source on a public forum, even though I believe it to be mostly legal.

 

[PhillyDC215]

I'd prefer 94-WIP shut off their HD so I could listen live in sync while at Citizens Bank Park. Unfortunately, Audacy's policy to leave the HD delay on, in addition to adding a seven second delay during all live sporting events. So, trying to follow the radio play-by-play at the stadium is impossible.

The an San Francisco Giants are broadcast on 680-KNBR, and 104.5 KNBR-FM. No HD, no delay, and FM stereo on 104.5-FM. I was amazed a year ago when I went to Oracle Park in San Francisco and saw a few dozen fans in the stand with old fashioned portable radios and headphones on listening to the terrestrial broadcasts.


Ahhh, the good ol' days, listening to Harry and Whitey on 1210-WCAU during a blow out, walking around Veterans Stadium.

 

[Larry]

Ahhh, the good ol' days, listening to Harry and Whitey on 1210-WCAU during a blow out, walking around Veterans Stadium.

When the Phillies first started being broadcast on WIP didn’t WIP broadcast on a 7 second delay and WCAU continued to broadcast with no delay (or Vice versa)? I remember them recommending one station if you were watching on tv as it would be in sync with Comcast telecast.

 

[Irishfl]

When WIP first moved to 94.1, 610 would air Phillies, and Eagles game on no delay for fans at the games to listen to. They would even advertise it for the eagles. That obviously went away with the sale of 610.