Baseball Ad Revenue Steady in 2018 Season

During the regular season, Major League Baseball games drove in $230.5 million in national advertising revenue, roughly the same as last year, according to new figures from Kantar Media.

Kantar Media’s figures run through Sept. 26, which means a few season ending games weren’t counted including two tie-breaking game 163s in the National League Monday in which the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Chicago Cubs to win the Central Division and the Los Angeles Dodgers topped the Colorado Rockies to claim the West Division crown.

For 2017, baseball games scored $230.6 million in ad revenue, up from $225.2 million in 2016.

Kantar said that Softbank Corp was baseball’s top spender at $10.1 million during the 2018 season. Other top spender include General Motors, Berkshire Hathaway, Ford Motor and Verizon Communications.

Jon Lafayette

Jon has been business editor of Broadcasting+Cable since 2010. He focuses on revenue-generating activities, including advertising and distribution, as well as executive intrigue and merger and acquisition activity. Just about any story is fair game, if a dollar sign can make its way into the article. Before B+C, Jon covered the industry for TVWeek, Cable World, Electronic Media, Advertising Age and The New York Post. A native New Yorker, Jon is hiding in plain sight in the suburbs of Chicago.