Major League Baseball could not have asked for a better World Series. The 2024 Fall Classic will be played between the two biggest markets and storied teams in the MLB: the Los Angeles Dodgers and the New York Yankees.
FOX has exclusive coverage for the entirety of the World Series and is definitely going to be getting their money’s worth with this star-studded showdown. The first two games of the World Series have been extremely successful in the eyes of the MLB and FOX. Games one and two averaged 14.5 million viewers across FOX platforms. Compared to last year’s World Series, this figure is 65% higher than the first two games between the Rangers and the Diamondbacks via Front Office Sports.
Due to the high-profile nature of this World Series matchup, Fox has been able to sell lucrative in-game advertisements. The Sports Business Journal reports that FOX is selling a 30-second in-game advertisement slot for 400,000 to 500,000 dollars for the first five games of the World Series. Additionally, if the series extends to six or seven games, the price range for these time slots will rise.
In 2018, FOX extended their media rights deal with the MLB, giving FOX regular season coverage as they desire and exclusive broadcast rights to the All-Star Game and World Series. According to Bleacher Report, this contract runs through 2028 and was worth just over 5 billion dollars, around 525 million dollars annually.
FOX’s investment in the MLB has paid off because the biggest markets in baseball are competing on the biggest stage in baseball, the World Series. This is the first time the Dodgers and the Yankees have competed against each other in the World Series since 1981, and FOX and the MLB are reaping the rewards.
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WBN MLB: https://worldbaseball.com/league/mlb/
