Disney's streaming growth - in subs and costs; Putting a bow on the World Series; CA voters not surprisingly reject sports betting initiatives.
Disney's streaming growth - in subs and costs; Putting a bow on the World Series; CA voters not surprisingly reject sports betting initiatives.
I enjoyed speaking with the sales leaders from Speedway Motorsports who were all in Charlotte this week as we spent more than an hour talking about the state of the sports business. Their questions were great and thoughtful. Meanwhile, deal makers and sports starts today in Washington DC great event with compelling speakers in the great city of the District of Columbia. It's not too late to register and watch the event. Virtually. Go to our website for more information and this is your morning Buzz cast for Wednesday, November 9th. Good morning. I made Mad Core. Thanks for listening to the Buzz Cast. Let's start with baseball, because the final numbers are in for the World Series. And despite all the positives around the series and the sport, it can't escape the narrative that this will come in as the second lowest viewed World series ever. Now, society has changed and these numbers should be taken in context, but that is the headline you will see.
At the end of the day, the numbers were down 1% in viewership this year as the sixth game. Astros Philly series was certainly impacted by a shift in the scheduling due to a rainout, and we talked about that last week on the Buzz Gas overall, Fox averaged 11.8 million viewers this year down from 11.9 million last year for Braves Astros. And again, that makes it the second smallest average for a World Series. All time behind. The pandemic impacted 2020 Dodgers Rays World Series, which had 9.8 million viewers for a six game series. Now, the final numbers may surprise you because we talked last week how the series was tracking ahead, but it was game six that flipped the script on the series. Fox drew 12.5 million for that Astros win on Saturday night, but that game was up against some major college football competition. In primetime. He had Clemson, Notre Dame, he had Alabama, lsu, he had Florida State Miami, and that certainly impacted the final number.
But here is the good news. While down, overall in viewership versus 2021, the World Series was up 9% among viewers in the 18 to 34 demographic. That's the demographic baseball wants to be in. So baseball's very pleased with that. In terms of overall market, should it be a surprise, Philadelphia let all markets with a 25 local rating edging out Houston, which had a 24 local rating, rounding out the top five, perhaps not a surprise, Austin, San Antonio, and then San Diego. So again, the viewership of the last five World Series goes like this. 2018 Red Sox Dodgers, 14.1 million viewers, 2019 Nationals Astros, 13.8 million viewers. 2020 Dodgers raise 9.7 million viewers. 2021 Braves Astros, 11.9 million viewers and 2022 Astros Phillies, 11.7 million viewers. So those are the trend lines that you're seeing over a five year history. Meanwhile, let's look at the advertising side. If you feel you saw a lot of ads for Samsung Mobile, you're not wrong.
As Samsung led all brands in ad spending during the series at nearly 7.7 million in ad spend. Coming in at number two was Geico. This is according to data from IPO tv. So the top five advertisers in total spend around the World Series, Samsung Mobile, Geico, T-Mobile, Indeed and Chevrolet. So those were the top five advertisers. For a list of even more, go to sports business journal.com. So that's putting a bow on this year's World Series and MLB season. Let's move on. Don't expect sports betting and California anytime soon as California voters. Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected two sports betting initiatives. They shot down initiatives that were really advocated by Native American tribes and the wagering industry. There was a ton of money spent on these initiatives and the measures were behind right from the start. They never got any momentum and they didn't pass. Proposition 26 would've legalized in-person sports betting at tribal casinos and horse racing tracks that was voted down by more than 70% of voters.
Meanwhile, Proposition 27 would've allowed sports gambling companies to operate mobile betting in partnerships with a tribe that was, of course, supported by fan du and Draft Kings that was voted down by 84% of voters. So California voters really resoundingly rejecting sports betting in that state, which is a big setback to the gambling industry that of course wants to be in California. Let's move on to Disney's report yesterday cuz streaming was a bright spot for Disney in its fourth quarter, 2002 earnings that was reported on Tuesday. ESPN plus now has 24.3 million subscribers. That's up from 22.8 million from the previous quarter, and it's actually up more than 40% from the same point last year in 2021. Now overall, Disney plus subscriptions are up to 164.2 million subscribers just for Disney plus. Now, those are good numbers for Disney. Those numbers beat expectations and predictions, but the bad news is the increasing cost around Disney's streaming business.
Disney's streaming business lost 1.4 billion in this quarter. That was more than twice the year earlier loss. It was almost 40% more than what analysts had predicted since Disney Plus launched three years ago. Disney's streaming business has lost more than 8 billion. And so with those significant losses, Disney said yesterday that it plans to make cuts to marketing and content budgets and believe it can begin to narrow those losses, but those losses are certainly impacting the market's reaction to Disney's streaming business. That's something you're gonna wanna keep your eye on. Let's shift to some baseball team news because if the Oakland A are looking for some public funding to help them relocate to Las Vegas, they may be disappointed as both Nevada and Las Vegas leaders have said that no public financial assistance is available. Now, Nevada governor Steve Olak said that a deal with any public assistance isn't on the table for the A.
He says he's told both MLB Commissioner Rob Manford, and a's President David Caval, that there is no desire from the state to offer public tax dollars to help finance the construction of a new ballpark. Remember the a's have been looking at two sites for a ballpark in Las Vegas for several months. He says there will not be any type of deal that was offered to the Raiders to relocate from Oakland to Las Vegas, but he didn't rule out helping the team with infrastructure or roads or some other forms of assistance. So I've heard, and it's well known, that if the a's do decide to relocate, they would require some form of public assistance. So we have to watch if this makes the team talk to other markets about what could be available and if the team decides to look for some other suitors staying with baseball.
The Seattle Mariners are feeling good about the future of their team and they continue to try new things around business behind their new business leader, Katie Griggs. Now the franchise is doing something pretty unique. It's looking to make game tickets more accessible and they'll offer $10 center field bleacher seats for every regular season home game starting next year. Now, T-Mobile Park in Seattle has about 1800 center field bleacher seats. All of those will go for $10 and that's a very, very affordable price point and is about a low price point as you're gonna see in sports. Also, the Mariners are trying to protect their home field advantage. So they will allow fans in the Pacific Northwest to have access to an exclusive four day pre-sale. So fans in five states will have the opportunity, the first opportunity to get seats to all 81 home games that'll start November 18th.
Eligibility will be determined by the zip code, of course, of the buyer. So the Mariners continue to try new elements to get more fans engaged and coming to the ballpark and will end the buzz cast around people. ASM Global has named Gary Jacobs as President of Business Development for the US and Latin America. Gary Jacobs, well known to the sports industry. He actually was an SJ 40 under 40 honoree in 1999. Yes, and he joins ASM Global from zip in where he had spent I think two years as vice president of business development and sales. He'll fill the role left by ASM, Global Strategy and Development executive vice President Chuck Steedman, who has departed ASM Global to join the private equity fund. Raptor Sports Capital CAA led the search for ASM Global. Gary Jacobs will report to ASM global CEO Ron Bension. ASM Global, of course has a number of venues more than 350 arenas and stadiums and convention centers spread across the globe.
That's part of its portfolio. And now Gary Jacobs, he will be focused on developing new revenue streams around that portfolio of venues. So that is your morning buzz cast for Wednesday, November 9th. I made Mad Core. Thanks for listening to the Buzz cast. My colleague David Albright will bring you the buzz cast Thursday and Friday as I will be in Huntsville, Alabama. I will be leading a discussion with S E c Commissioner Greg Sankey at the Huntsville Museum of Art. Look forward to that. And so until I speak to you again next week, stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll speak to you down the road.