Monday, March 29, 2004
Baseball's Bridge, Japan to America.
With the Yankees and Devil Rays about to open the season in Tokyo, we're in for several days of "baseball in Japan" articles. This one, from Washington Post foreign correspondent Peter S. Goodman, focuses on Hideki Matsui's popularity in his native land. It also provides some numbers relevant to the purpose of this blog.
MLB's international revenues are now about $100 million/year, 60% of which comes from Japan. Japan's NHK Broadcasting plans to air 300 major league games this year, and the Japanese Dentsu advertising agency is paying $275 million for five years of broadcasting rights. Last year the American All-Star Game got higher ratings in Japan than in the U.S., while the World Series attracted an average of 12.5 million Japanese viewers even though the games started in the morning.
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With the Yankees and Devil Rays about to open the season in Tokyo, we're in for several days of "baseball in Japan" articles. This one, from Washington Post foreign correspondent Peter S. Goodman, focuses on Hideki Matsui's popularity in his native land. It also provides some numbers relevant to the purpose of this blog.
MLB's international revenues are now about $100 million/year, 60% of which comes from Japan. Japan's NHK Broadcasting plans to air 300 major league games this year, and the Japanese Dentsu advertising agency is paying $275 million for five years of broadcasting rights. Last year the American All-Star Game got higher ratings in Japan than in the U.S., while the World Series attracted an average of 12.5 million Japanese viewers even though the games started in the morning.
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