The World Series between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers doesn’t start until Friday night, but Madison Avenue has already taken a big swing at the audiences projected to turn up for Major League Baseball’s flagship property. Fox is sold out of fixed ad positions for the first two games of the championship, says Mark Evans, executive vice president of ad sales for Fox Sports , a better position than the network has enjoyed in advance of the games “in about a decade.” Advertisers that want to get into the first two games of the Series, he says, would have to buy inventory that would surface only if there were a pitching change, extra innings, or some other development that cannot be predicted in advance.
Fox has been seeking between $450,000 and $500,000 for a 30-second spot in the first five games of the World Series, and would expect prices to rise if there is need for a sixth or seventh game. The network, which has telecast every World Series since 2001, appears to be in a better position than it has been in some time. Last year’s match-up between the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks had narrower appeal to broader audiences because both teams were located in the same general area of the U.
S. A Yankees-Dodgers match, on the other hand, will draw fans from both sides of the nation. Fox was already seeing stronger demand for baseball during this season’s All-Star Game and in the industry’s recent “upfront” sales market, says Evans, but the e.
