Cardinals fans remain loyal to television despite the team's struggles

The Redbirds, despite a recent surge, are still well outside of a playoff spot and acknowledged this week that they plan to sell as the trade deadline nears. Despite this, Cardinals fans continue to watch the team on television at a higher rate than any other US-based MLB team. That's despite the club being on pace for a record-low season in St. Louis.

The Cardinals, who rank near the bottom of the National League for their home game, are No. 1 in ratings among American clubs for their local telecasts. (Nielsen, which tracks viewership, does not measure the Toronto Blue Jays' television audience.) Philadelphia is No. 2 and Milwaukee is third.

The Redbirds are also atop the St. Louis scoring pile. Louis in cross-program viewership across all stations when they play in prime time. Additionally, Cards video conferencing company Bally Sports Midwest says usage of its app for streaming Cardinals games is up 27 percent from the same point last season.

Those figures are through Tuesday, and Nielsen reports that BSM's Redbirds telecasts are seen in 5.7 percent of the market and are being watched by 113,000 viewers per game. Understandably, given the on-field results, this is down from last season — down 15% in viewers and down 11% in viewership.

But winning, which the team has been doing more often recently, is a rating booster. Sunday-Tuesday games this week averaged a 6.6 rating, a significant increase from the season average of 5.7.

However, things are not so rosy in the big picture.

If that 5.7 rating doesn't improve significantly by season's end, this year's number would be the second-worst on record for Bally Sports Midwest since it began showing Cardinals games in 1997. Its rating that year it was 4.7.

But there is an important caveat.

The bulk of Cardinals telecasts then still aired on “free” TV and KPLR (Channel 11) drew an 11.8 rating. Excluding the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, the worst rating since the club took a cable-only approach to its local telecasts in 2011 is a 6.2 (in 2021). So this is shaping up to be the Cardinals' worst-rated season overall since online viewing began in 1989.

Their high ranking nationally while at a record low local rate underscores the diminishing impact of regional sports networks in this era of people ditching cable/satellite subscriptions.