Bedeviled by rain delays (and the Tampa Bay Rays), the 2008 World Series had the lowest average viewership ever (13.6 million). Barring a 4 game sweep plus something else extraordinary, the 2009 World Series featuring the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies should easily beat those ratings. The last time the Yankees were in the World Series (2003) the average viewership topped 20 million. I think a seven game series this year could test the 20 million level. Anything shorter than seven games and I think that 17 million average looks like a reasonable target.

In this century, for World Series average viewership to break 20 million, it requires the Yankees or the Red Sox. Although in 2000, even the Yankees couldn’t pull an all NY matchup above 20 million.

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A story in the NY Times today discusses some changes that the Emmy Awards producers tried (and failed) to make to boost the ratings for the show that fell to its lowest level in nearly two decades last year (historical data below).

I think fiddling with the broadcast format misses the bigger problem that is highlighted by this quote from the same article.

If the same, relatively lightly viewed, shows keep winning year after year, why is the ratings slide a surprise?

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The public’s assessment of the accuracy of news is at its lowest levels in two decades according to the latest from Pew Research.

TV still dominant for news

Television was still the most dominant source for both national and local news.

The  most recent biennial media attitudes survey from The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press has a lot of information on how accurate and fair the press is.  They cover a wide range of topics, including that criticism of the press is now more bipartisan, while the Fox News audience is more critical of the press’s performance according to the survey.

You can download the full report in PDF or read the survey overview on the web at The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.

In the latest TV provider breakdown from The Bridge show Telco TV services (Verizon FiOS, AT&T U-verse) continuing to take share in the TV provider market primarily at the expense of traditional cable MSOs (Comcast, Cox, Time Warner, etc.), while satellite provider’s (DirecTV, DISH) share inches upwards.

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via Nielsen Wire:

Three Screen Report: Media Consumption and Multi-tasking Continue to Increase Across TV, Internet, and Mobile

Americans are increasing their overall media consumption, and media multi-tasking is part of the equation, according to new data from The Nielsen Company’s most recent Three Screen Report. During 2nd Quarter 2009, the number of people watching mobile video increased 70% from last year and people who watch video online increased their viewing by 46% compared to a year ago. In addition, the average American TV consumption remains at an all-time high (141 hours per month) compared to the same time frame last year.

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Via Nielsen Wire:

For the 2009-2010 broadcast season Nielsen estimates that the total number of television households within the U.S. (including Alaska and Hawaii) will be 114.9 million. This is an increase of 400,000 homes from last year and the smallest increase in the last 10 years. Nielsen also estimates that the number of Persons age 2 and above (P2+) in U.S. television households will increase slightly to 292 million:

Broadcast Season Universe Estimates
Season	Homes in Millions
2009-2010	114.9
2008-2009	114.5
2007-2008	112.8
2006-2007	111.4
2005-2006	110.2
2004-2005	109.6
2003-2004	108.4
2002-2003	106.7
2001-2002	105.5
2000-2001	102.2

Source: The Nielsen Company

read on for local market estimates

In another in a series of nuggets from the latest Nielsen Television Audience Report is this chart that shows all sorts of TV related adoption trends (click for a larger copy).

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We seem to have constant discussions underway in our comments about how TV watching is doomed, a relic, being overwhelmed by the internet, DVDs, computer games, the next latest and greatest thing. Trouble is, and we’ve covered this many times, it’s just not true.

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