Author: KEVIN KLEPS

The Indians’ season opener at Houston drew a 5.7 rating on SportsTime Ohio on Monday night. A total of about 85,000 households tuned in, and STO’s rating was 58% better than the local viewership for ESPN’s broadcast of the game.

The SportsTime Ohio rating is more impressive when you consider that the audience was somewhat divided by ESPN televising the Tribe game, and the fact that the Duke-Wisconsin national championship contest started during the latter stages of the Tribe opener. Nationally, the Duke-Wisconsin matchup posted the largest national championship rating in 18 years, and it fared pretty well locally, too.

Reds hot on the field to start the season, but how are they doing on TV?

Steve Watkins

Staff Reporter-Cincinnati Business Courier

Down year? You couldn’t tell that’s the popular prediction for the Cincinnati Reds this season by their 2-0 start or by looking at how many fans are tuning in on TV.

The Reds’ Opening Day game drew the biggest share of their local TV market of any Major League Baseball team in this season’s openers.

The Reds' 5-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday pulled in a combined rating of 18.6 for Fox Sports Ohio and WKRC-TV (Channel 12), which simulcasted the game. The rating means nearly 19 percent of all households in Greater Cincinnati tuned in to the Reds opener. That comes to 170,000 households that watched the game.

That’s the third-best Opening Day rating – and third-best regular-season TV rating of any kind – for the Reds since Fox Sports Ohio began broadcasting games in 1997

The Opening Day numbers dwarf the typical Reds ratings that are strong among MLB teams. This year’s Opening Day rating tripled last season’s average 6.0 rating for Reds games on Fox Sports Ohio, meaning about 54,000 households tuned in to each game on average, according to industry sources.

The Reds have steadily ranked at least in the top six over the past five seasons, including placing fourth in 2013 among MLB teams.

MLB starts strong in Ohio

Cincinnati Reds start strong on the field and on FOX Sports Ohio

The Reds’ Opening Day 5-2 win over the Pirates generated an 18.63 household rating on FOX Sports Ohio in simulcast with WKRC (approx. 170K households), up over last year’s home opener rating (18.37 HH). It's the third highest rated Reds game on FOX Sports Ohio ever, and was the highest Opening Day rating in all of MLB.

The game ran from 4:00 to 7:30pm and included a 35-minute rain delay at the top of the 6^th inning. The final hour of game play averaged over a 23 HH (over 214K households).

Leading up to the game, the network aired six hours of live programming covering the city-wide celebration and pre-game fanfare. With a broadcast team of eight, FOX Sports Ohio covered the festivities live from Washington Park, Findlay Market, Fountain Square and the Reds Community Fund Charity Block Party at The Banks as well as aired the Findlay Market Opening Day Parade live.

SportsTime Ohio beats ESPN in Indians season opener coverage

The Cleveland Indians – Houston Astros game last night posted a 6.1 household rating in Cleveland on SportsTime Ohio. STO’s rating beat ESPN’s coverage by 56% (3.91).

STO also hosted an hour-long Indians Live pre-game show live from the new set inside Progressive Field and a NEW show, Progressive Field: Revealed debuted following the game. CLICK for video

The next Indians game on STO is tomorrow as they take on the Astros. Indians Live pre-game show starts at 7:30pm with game coverage beginning at 8:00pm.