Phillies

Bryce Harper Fueled a 31 Percent Phillies TV Ratings Increase in April

By Russ Joy

Published: May 2nd, 2019 · 9:22 AM EDT

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Bryce Harper’s acquisition was bound to wake a quasi-dormant Phillies fanbase after a few years of dreck and a season of progress in 2018. Per Jeff Blumenthal of Philadelphia Business Journal, the Phillies saw a 31% increase in ratings on NBC Sports Philadelphia in the month of April. The Phillies’ average household rating increased from 3.5 in April of 2018 to 4.6 in April of this year. NBC Sports Philadelphia has also seen a steaming viewers increase of 132%.

According to Blumenthal:

The team’s April 2 game against the Washington Nationals scored a 7.2 rating, the highest-rating game since the July 5, 2012 game against the New York Mets. A 1.0 rating equals 28,169 households.

What this means for NBC Sports Philadelphia is an increase in ad revenue, as their advertisers are willing to spend more money and presumably buy more ad time than a year ago. The network has added four new sponsors on TV and four different sponsors on their steaming side.

As Blumenthal mentioned in his article, NBC Sports Philadelphia cannot bring on any sports betting advertisers interested in running ads during Phillies coverage, as per MLB policy.

None of this is entirely surprising, as Major League Baseball is often behind the curve on new and emerging trends. We’ll see how May’s ratings will look as Harpermania dies down a bit and the reality of a long and arduous season sets in.