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Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
OT: Tokyo Series draws 25M viewers in Japan; Fox blows it
Posted Wed, Mar 19 11:54 am (Edited Wed, Mar 19 11:59 am)
Nothing illustrates the respective stature of baseball in Japan and the US than the Tokyo Series between the Dodgers and Cubs that just kicked off the MLB season. The series was bound to draw huge numbers in Japan because of how many former Japanese NPB stars play on both teams. But, the series also turned into an embarrassing US broadcast debacle for Fox.

In Japan, the Tokyo Series drew 25 million viewers. That's a larger viewing audience than any US baseball viewing audience since 28 million viewers tuned in for Game 7* of the 2017 World Series* (Dodgers vs Astros*). Also consider that Japan has a total population of 123 million people compared to 340 million in the US.

https://awfulannouncing.com/mlb/tokyo-series-shatters-viewership-record-japan.html

Meanwhile, Fox had a disastrous outing with its TV coverage. The ratings aren't out yet, but Fox basically gave the Tokyo Series the Pac-12 basketball treatment by calling the game remotely (recall that Fox cheaped out on the UCLA vs Arizona coverage a couple of years ago by not sending the broadcasters to Tucson and instead having them do the call remotely).

Not only did Fox use a different play-by-play announcer for each game with the analyst chiming in from a different location from the play-by-play call, but they totally muffed the coverage for Tuesday's game. The audio sync was off, so the on-screen graphic and the broadcast audio were coming in 3 seconds ahead of the video.

https://x.com/ChasingSnyder/status/1901941500805579260


Baseball fans were already livid because of Fox's lack of promotion for the series. With media companies paying through the nose for broadcast rights, you'd think they would want to showcase a quality product. But, it seems that they view the production as a cost that needs cutting.

https://barrettmedia.com/2025/03/19/first-take-fox-sports-broadcasters-should-have-been-in-tokyo/
Flat 4
Joined: 1/13/14 Posts: 3,894
Audio and visual sync
Posted Wed, Mar 19 2:11 pm
In response to OT: Tokyo Series draws 25M viewers in Japan; Fox blows it (Woochifer)
Has nothing to do with talent being on site. Technical issue with Home Run productions. I think people would be shocked how many games are called remotely. About half of everything Fox televises is called remotely.

Certainly cost savings measure but somebody has to pay for the 1000 employees that were on site in New Orleans for the Super Bowl.
Woochifer
Joined: 12/15/11 Posts: 9,118
The sync issue is amateur hour stuff
Posted Wed, Mar 19 3:34 pm
In response to Audio and visual sync (Flat 4)
I get that Fox has gone more to remote broadcasts. Everybody went to remote booths during the pandemic, but returned to in-person broadcasts since then. Yes, it happens for college sports and on regional sports networks, but I don't think I've seen a US national network go remote for a national broadcast of one of the four major team sports since the pandemic.

You'd think that with a high profile event like this, Fox would want their top broadcast team at the event (Joe Davis already works for the Dodgers and I don't think Jon Smoltz has a heavy work load this time of year). But, the lack of promotion and indifferent production says otherwise.

The audio sync issue is amateur hour stuff and just carries over the same cheap feeling of indifference. Fox's contract with MLB runs through 2028. This kind of snafu does not bode well for Fox renewing when that contract expires. ESPN also had a contract that ran through 2028, but they exercised their opt out and will end their MLB coverage after the 2025 season.

MLB has been looking to consolidate all of the media rights under their in-house production umbrella (Sportsnet LA, YES, and NESN are reportedly the main obstacles), and bundle the package for global distribution. The disproportionately large audiences for MLB broadcasts in Japan and South Korea seem to indicate that MLB's future will be more with international media conglomerates than domestic TV networks.