Orioles have 5th-highest television ratings in MLB, still more than double Nationals ratings

At the All-Star Break, the Orioles have kind of disappointed us so far this year, but O's fans are collectively tuning in to enough games on MASN that the team has the fifth-highest rating out of the 29 MLB teams in the US. With a 5.67 rating, the Orioles trail only the Royals, Cardinals, Pirates, and Tigers. That's according to data reviewed by the Sports Business Journal.

The O's 5.67 rating is unchanged from where they were last year, when they would go on to win the American League East. Holding steady is not bad as ratings go for the league this year, since there were 14 teams that saw their ratings go down compared to last year. Just by keeping up what they were, the O's are ahead of about half of the teams in terms of growth, even without any growth at all.

To the south, the MASN-sharing neighbors enjoyed a boost of 41% over their ratings from last year, which was the fifth-highest rate of growth among the teams. Of course, that increase takes them to a 2.69 rating, so they still get less than half of the rating of Orioles games. Good job, good effort.

If you've been following Camden Chat throughout this year, you might remember that I have at times become engrossed in the various legal proceedings surrounding MASN and the Nationals/MLB attempts to rig proceedings and screw the Orioles out of tens of millions of dollars. The hearing for the trial was a couple of months ago now and they're still awaiting the ruling. At no point in anything that I read did either side in the case ever bring up the subject of ratings.

Tens of millions of dollars are at stake and it's all arguments on an abstract level beyond the question of how many people actually watch the primary reason for the station's existence - MLB games. Perhaps it's not advantageous for either side to make the argument because if money going up is connected to ratings going up, then ratings going down would also mean money should go down. Nobody wants that.

Not that I can blame the fans of the pharmacy for not watching as much of their games as Orioles fans watch of ours. If I had to listen to their television guys night in and night out, I wouldn't watch, either.