Aaron outrates Bonds on television
NEW YORK – Hank Aaron is still the home-run king when it comes to television ratings.
ESPN2’s broadcast of Barry Bonds’ record 756th homer received a 1.1 cable rating on ESPN2 Tuesday night, which translates to 995,000 households.
When Aaron hit his 715th home run on April 8, 1974, to break Babe Ruth’s record, NBC’s broadcast received a 22.3 rating on NBC, the equivalent of 14.9 million homes.
Back in Aaron’s day, there were only a fraction of the TV channels that viewers can choose from today. Also, baseball had far less competition for the attention of fans.
Aaron’s historic home run in Atlanta was hit at 9:07 p.m. EDT, while Bonds’ drive in San Francisco came at 11:51 p.m. EDT. During the 11:45 p.m. to midnight time period, ESPN2’s telecast averaged a 1.7 cable rating (1.6 million homes), and for the following 15 minutes the rating jumped to 1.9 (1.8 million homes).
NBC did not have 15-minute breakdowns available for the 1974 game.
Bonds’ game did better in San Francisco, where is received a 7.2 rating and 15 share on FSN Bay Area (172,000 homes). During the 15-minute time period when Bonds homered, the telecast got an 11.1 rating (265,000 homes).
Tuesday’s game was the 10th added Giants telecast by ESPN/ESPN2 during Bonds’ home run chase.
The rating is the percentage of television households watching a broadcast, and the share is the percentage watching among those homes with televisions on at the time.
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