Post season baseball brings record rating to Fox Sports 1

Friday night, with Game 5 of the 2014 National League Championship Series tied at 3-3 in the bottom of the ninth, up stepped San Francisco Giants left fielder Travis Ishikawa with two men aboard, and with one swing he became part of baseball lore when he scorched a line drive three-run, game-winning home run, sending the Giants to their third World Series in the last five years. Well over six million viewers tuned in at that moment to see the drama unfold, while the game delivered FOX Sports 1 a record-tying rating, according to Nielsen.

FOX Sports 1’s coverage of NLCS Game 5 between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants, presented by T-Mobile, delivered a 3.1 household rating, tying it with NLCS Game 4 as the highest-rated program ever on FOX Sports 1, while drawing 4.891 million viewers making it the second most-watched program ever on FOX Sports 1. First is NLCS Game 4, 5.092 million.

FOX Sports 1’s top five shows and seven of its top 10 are 2014 MLB postseason games.

St. Louis led all markets posting a 25.2, with San Francisco next (18.8), both FOX Sports 1 records in those markets. Sacramento came in third (13.7), followed by Kansas City, home of the American League Champion Kansas City Royals (9.4).




Viewership built every half hour and peaked with 6.519 million viewers from 11:00-11:14 PM ET as Ishikawa’s homer sent the Cardinals home and delivered the Giants their 20th trip to the World Series. The peak audience for Game 5 is a new 2014 postseason high, breaking the record set in Game 4 (6.077 million from 10:30-11:00 PM ET).

FOX Deportes hit a home run with Game 5, reaching the highest audience delivery for a Game 5 in Spanish-language television history with 199,000 total viewers and 108,000 P18-49. Viewership peaked from 10:00-10:30 PM ET with 265,000 total viewers.

NLCS GAME 5 TIES HIGHTEST-RATED PROGRAM EVER ON FOX SPORTS 1

Driven by NLCS Game 5, yesterday was FOX Sports GO's fourth best day ever for authenticated streaming. The top market for digital viewership of NLCS Game 5 was San Francisco, followed by San Jose, Los Angeles and St. Louis.

Earlier this week it was announced that FOX Sports 1, powered this month by record-breaking audiences generated by MLB postseason coverage, is the fastest-growing network in television since the 2014-‘15 television season began.

Game 1 of the 2014 World Series is Tuesday, Oct. 21, live from Kauffman Stadium, home of the Royals. Coverage begins with a special 90-minute edition of AMERICA’S PREGAME on FOX Sports 1, followed by the World Series Pregame Show on FOX broadcast network (7:00 PM ET) and Game 1 (8:00 PM ET), also on FOX broadcast network.