Major League Baseball’s Arizona Diamondbacks said they generated more than 83,000 digital page views for a webcast of its July 13 intrasquad game, a total representing by far the team’s most-watched video over the past two months.
The total, beating the viewership for the club’s second-most-watched video since May by more than 60 per cent, was fueled in part by the game being the first live game action from Chase Field the team has distributed since the end of last season. The total also continues a strong run of fan interest in MLB team scrimmages that previously were unseen by fans and are essentially a heightened form of practice.
The Los Angeles Dodgers last week generated more than 70,000 viewers for a live stream of an intrasquad game, while the New York Yankees peaked at more than 60,000 television viewers for initial coverage of the team’s Summer Camp training for the upcoming season. Numerous other MLB clubs have similarly hovered in the mid-five-figure range for its live intrasquad game audiences, with varying levels of production effort.
“These numbers are a great indication of the viewing audience that will follow during the 60-game regular season and hopefully beyond,” said Derrick Hall, Diamondbacks president and chief executive.
Similarly, Fox Sports said it is anticipating strong audience growth for the start of the 2020 MLB season.
“When other major properties have staged their comeback events, the audience has really responded,” said Mike Mulvihill, Fox Sports executive vice president and head of strategy.
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