Yankees-Dodgers is MLB's marketing Dream Series

LOS ANGELES -- Dave Roberts had a bold prediction.

“More eyeballs are going to beryllium watching this World Series than immoderate different Series successful history,” nan Los Angeles Dodgers head said.

Major League Baseball's dream matchup is the Dodgers and nan New York Yankees. Massive markets, expansive instrumentality bases and sparkling lineups led by a transcendent prima successful Shohei Ohtani.

“This is for illustration Ali-Frazier, aliases Magic and Bird, aliases Jordan and Isaiah Thomas, aliases Ohio State shot against Michigan football,” Bill Wanger, Fox Sports executive vice president, caput of programming and scheduling, said connected nan eve of Friday's opener.

This will beryllium nan first World Series pinch 5 erstwhile MVPs: Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman of nan Dodgers and Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton of nan Yankees.

This is only nan 5th Series since nan Wild Card Era started successful 1995 featuring nan teams pinch nan apical grounds successful each league.

It is conscionable nan 4th that includes nan location tally leaders successful each convention aft Lou Gehrig and Mel Ott successful 1936, Joe DiMaggio and Ott nan pursuing twelvemonth and Mickey Mantle and Duke Snider successful 1956.

It is nan first pinch a 50-homer hitter connected each squad successful Judge (58) and Ohtani (54).

“The World Series matchup pinch our 2 biggest markets and a bevy of our biggest stars provides a unsocial opportunity to return different measurement guardant connected immoderate of our astir important strategical initiatives, namely a much nationalist broadcast strategy, world growth, peculiarly successful Japan, and heightened societal media beingness related to liking successful nan Series by stars from different sports and fields of entertainment,” shot Commissioner Rob Manfred said.

Game 1 delivered connected nan hype, pinch Freeman slugging nan first walk-off expansive slam successful World Series history to headdress LA’s 6-3, 10-inning win.

Ohtani's jersey tops MLB's sales, pinch Judge third, Betts fourth, Soto seventh and Freeman 18th. Ohtani and Dodgers pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto person sparked grounds tv viewers successful Japan, wherever nan Dodgers' Game 5 Division Series triumph complete San Diego drew 12.9 cardinal viewers — much than nan mean 9.11 cardinal viewers successful nan U.S. for Texas' five-game World Series triumph complete Arizona past year.

MLB launched its “Once successful a Generation. Twice” advertisement run aft nan Division Series featuring Ohtani and Judge. It arranged “Sho Time/All Rise” integer advertisements crossed New York and nan Los Angeles area, including Times Square and nan Beverly Center.

MLB and Wieden+Kennedy Tokyo placed 113 integer advertisements passim Tokyo earlier successful nan offseason, 1 for each location tally and stolen guidelines successful Ohtani's record-setting first 50-50 season.

During Game 1 of nan World Series connected Friday night, MLB's TikTok relationship sent retired clips to its 7.6 cardinal followers not conscionable of cardinal highlights, but besides nan manner players wore to nan stadium and celebrities for illustration Billie Eilish and John Legend watching from nan stands. MLB said engagement connected its societal posts are up 47% this postseason.

Fox hopes nan matchup spurs a ratings rebound. The web began broadcasting nan World Series successful nan U.S. successful 1996, erstwhile nan Yankees' six-game triumph complete Atlanta averaged 25.2 cardinal viewers.

Since Boston's 2004 title averaged 25.4 million, nan World Series has topped 20 cardinal conscionable once, 22.9 cardinal successful 2016 for nan Chicago Cubs' first title since 1908. Last twelvemonth was a grounds low, down from 14.2 cardinal for nan Dodgers-Red Sox successful 2018 and 14.1 cardinal for nan Washington Nationals and Houston Astros successful 2019.

Those numbers bespeak changes successful really group watch games — little connected linear TV — but besides a dip successful shot interest. That 2004 World Series averaged much than doubly arsenic galore viewers arsenic that year's NBA Finals (Detroit vs LA Lakers). The NBA Finals has outperformed nan World Series successful 5 of nan past 7 years.

“We're expecting astatine slightest a five-year precocious and I deliberation realistically possibly we tin get to an eight-year high," said Mike Mulvihill, Fox’s president of insights and analytics. "It would beryllium a bully astonishment if we hit that Cubs-Cleveland Series successful 2016. That seems for illustration possibly a small spot of a stretch.”

Spurred by norm changes designed to summation action and velocity up games, MLB regular play attendance rose 0.9% to 71.35 million, nan first summation successful consecutive years since 2011-12. ESPN’s Sunday nighttime telecasts averaged 1,505,000 viewers, up 6% and its highest since 2019. Fox’s broadcasts averaged 1,879,000, up from 1,875,000. TBS’s early premier clip games averaged 375,000, a 2% rise.

But section viewers declined successful a marketplace wounded by Diamond Sports Group’s bankruptcy and a carriage conflict successful which Comcast Corp. dropped Diamond’s Bally Sports networks from early May until precocious July. Twenty-two teams had decreases, nan Sports Business Journal reported.

Noah Garden, MLB’s lawman commissioner of business and media, believes nan trading and tv scenery has changed markedly since nan Cubs' triumph, particularly during and aft nan coronavirus pandemic.

“People person moved each complete nan world, nan measurement you tin activity from anyplace now and they've moved each complete nan country,” he said. “When you look astatine nan viewership, yeah, surely concentrated successful LA and New York, but not each of it. Like there’s a tremendous magnitude of viewership and engagement coming from crossed nan country.”

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AP Sports Writer Joe Reedy contributed to this report.

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