Fox: we have no complaints about the World Series ratings

Folks are going to complain about the World Series ratings as soon as they start trickling in. They’re really going to complain when the Rams-Cowboys game on Sunday doubles the ratings of the Cardinals-Rangers game just around the corner later that evening. We know that by now.

But as Variety’s (and Dodgers Thoughts’) Jon Weisman reports, Fox is quite pleased, thank you very much, with the state of the ratings and their investment.

Ads sold out earlier than ever, Fox Sports’ vice-chairman Ed Goren said. And the ratings, while certainly not what they used to be, aren’t bad when you compare baseball to itself and other programming in this increasingly fragmented media landscape as opposed to simply comparing it to the ratings behemoth that is the NFL:

“First off, the World Series last year, we won primetime for the week. Even last year’s World Series ... in 1971, there was a Pirates-Orioles World Series, and it was the eighth highest-rated show of the year. Last year’s World Series was the eighth-highest rated show of the year also. In this 500-channel universe, the numbers that the World Series pulls in viewership are substantial year after year. Some years are better than others -- the more games you get, the better you’ll be -- but it is still a major, major ratings attraction.”

Baseball TV rights will be up for bidding again after the 2012 season. I’m guessing Fox, and other outlets, will be involved in the bidding. All of these are companies, it should be noted, that aren’t in the business of burning cash for the hell of it.