Last December, Major League Baseball and ESPN announced a significant change to its Sunday Night Baseball program, moving up the starting time of the games from 8:00 PM ET to 7:00 ET. Although seemingly a small change, the league hoped that it would prompt more fans — particularly children — to be able to watch the entirety of the game.
This turned out to be a success, with ratings increasing by up to 3% over last year, as reported back in June. So why haven’t they brought the same philosophy to the playoffs?
The MLB Playoffs should be the league’s biggest event of the season, and yet they have continuously seen shrinking ratings over the last couple of years.