SBJ Media: MLB in good place at All-Star break

I took in my first concert at Red Rocks on Saturday night, catching the second night of The Avett Brothers out in Colorado. Seeing a show at the iconic amphitheater had long been on my bucket list, and the venue didn’t disappoint.

Aaron Stojkov will be in the lead producer chair for the first time at an MLB All-Star Game on Tuesday night, but the grizzled veteran of Fox Sports isn’t sweating the big moment.

“I’ve been part of this crew for as long as Fox has had baseball,” he told SBJ. “[I’m] anxious in a good way, because I feel like it’s fun. It’s a fun game. Love baseball. It’s summer. America 250. Let’s do it.”

Stojkov will once again be leaning into the America 250 theme for this game, something he’s already done by producing the Fox July 4 MLB game and the Congressional Baseball Game on FS1 last month. “Being here in Philadelphia, there are so many great images with the history, Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell and all that,” he said. “We’ll lean into spoken-word things and imagery in that regard and musical performances. And then just during the game, we’ll touch on it occasionally with visuals and things we’ve built with players like bumpers.”

While some would view having 26 first-time All-Stars as a challenge, Stojkov sees opportunity. He pointed out the storylines around players like Tigers SS Kevin McGonigle, who hails from the Philadelphia area. “Imagery of him as a young man from Delaware County, just south of Philly,” noted Stojkov. “He’s Philly through and through. We’ll potentially have some access with him during the game.”

Viewers on Tuesday night can also expect Fox to bring the bells and whistles. That includes the introduction of ARRI digital cinema cameras for action on the field and the return of MindFly BodyCams on the umpire crew (part of 55 cameras for the game in total). Beverly Hills Aerials will pilot a pair of high-speed drones and a FlyCam. Helicopters Inc. is providing a helicopter for aerial views. Fox also will deploy 40 field-effect microphones and 10 player mics.

Fox should expect a bigger audience for the All-Star Game, as the postgame show for France-Spain in the FIFA World Cup semifinal will go right into the All-Star pregame show (or if Fox is lucky, the pregame show will come right after penalty kicks). Viewers tuning into the World Cup postgame show should also expect a talk-back from the pregame squad in Philly at the All-Star Game.

MLB is off to a strong start, with national partners — new and old — seeing gains at the All-Star break.

The “Sunday Night Baseball” package is off to its best start since 2008 in Year 1 with NBC, averaging 2.4 million viewers. That does not include any games exclusively on Peacock. This is up 41% from what ESPN was averaging last season. NBC’s first Yankees-Red Sox broadcast of the season is its top telecast to date at 4 million viewers.

Fox is off to its best start to the season since adopting an April season debut in 2023, averaging 2.27 million viewers for Saturday prime-time regionalized windows. That’s 10% better than the same point last season. The network also drew 5.9 million viewers for the 30-minute MLB All-Star Selection Show on July 4, marking the show’s best audience since it began in 2007. Fox put the show right after the France-Paraguay round of 32 match at the World Cup. Combined with FS1 games, the company is averaging 1.009 million viewers per game, which is up 18%.

ESPN/ABC’s new slate of MLB games (13 non-Sunday telecasts) are averaging 1.12 million viewers to date.

TBS/truTV is having its best start to an MLB season since moving to Tuesdays in 2022, averaging 466,000 viewers for non-exclusive games. The company is up 21% to date.

MLB Network is seeing its best game average since 2018, with 214,000 viewers for non-exclusive telecasts. That’s up 9% from the same point in 2025. The league-owned network’s “Showcase” telecasts, which it produces, are averaging 313,000, up 36%. Across its games, younger adults (18-34) are up 10% (MLB Network’s studio shows are also up 50% in that demo).

Overall, each MLB Network studio show is seeing a viewership jump this season. “MLB Central” is up 34%, “MLB Now” is up 19%, “Intentional Talk” is up 18%, “MLB Tonight” is up 25% and “Quick Pitch” is up 22%. Even “Big Inning” — where MLB Network does a live look-in of games — is up 24% (the best show delivering 310,000 viewers).

“These few days [around the All-Star break] show how we are operating multiple tracks at the same time: producing exceptional programming on MLB Network and helping our partners in a multitude of ways,” MLB Network President Bill Morningstar said. “The work is a testament to our dedicated behind-the-scenes crew.”

ESPN studio shows were up a collective 25% in Q2, including a 26% increase in June. “Get Up,” “First Take,” “The Pat McAfee Show” and “NBA Today” all had their best June audiences on record, while “NFL Live” had its best June since 2016. “PTI” even got in on the love, having its best June since 2021. ESPN shows continue to widen the gap head-to-head vs. several FS1 morning shows. Last month, “Get Up” was 2,142% better than “Wake Up Barstool” (426,000 viewers vs. 19,000). “NBA Today” and “NFL Live” were both over 225% better than the two-hour “First Things First.”

The FIFA World Cup helped Fox Corp. to prime-time wins for broadcast TV (Fox) and cable TV (FS1) during the weeks of June 15 and June 22. Combined with prime-time wins for Fox News during those weeks, the company had a rare sweep across all three categories. FS1 carried 12 World Cup matches during the week of June 15 alone, and in terms of total-day audience, that helped deliver the most-watched week in FS1 history at an average of 885,000 viewers. That was 90% better than what ESPN delivered during the same week.

Once Serena Williams went out in the first round of Wimbledon, I was skeptical that ESPN would sustain viewership momentum, but coming into the semifinals late last week, the tournament was averaging 759,000 viewers across ABC, ESPN and ESPN2, marking the best average yet for the major through that point. This is the first year with Big Data applied to the numbers, and Wimbledon was up 24% ahead of the semis compared to the same period in 2025. Last Tuesday, ESPN also was able to maintain an average of 1.1 million viewers for a Novak Djokovic-Felix Auger Aliassime quarterfinal that lasted five hours and 15 minutes, which was the longest match in Wimbledon history.

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