Yankees’ YES ratings soar past Mets’ SNY ratings
Yankees broadcasters Michael Kay, left, and David Cone in the YES Network booth. Credit: YES Network/E. H. Wallop
The Yankees have surprised the baseball world by outperforming the Mets on the field this season, but that is not the only place where they have enjoyed a better first half than their crosstown counterparts.
After losing the season television ratings battle to SNY for the first time in 2016, YES has bounced back, averaging 3.56 percent of metropolitan area homes for its Yankees telecasts to 2.86 percent for SNY’s Mets games.
SNY is not down by much year over year. Its average rating was 2.91 this time last year. But, YES is way up from the 2.29 it averaged at the 2016 All-Star break.
YES’ ratings were dented last year by a season-long dispute that kept it out of Comcast homes, but that was only one factor in its 2016 slump. YES’ viewership is up 45 percent compared with 2015, before it was taken off Comcast.
YES’ Yankees viewership is at its best since 2012. Eighteen telecasts have averaged at least 4.0 percent of homes, compared with none last season.
The Yankees are averaging 38,659 in paid attendance, essentially flat compared to last year — according to baseball-reference.com — a season in which their attendance finished at its lowest point since 1998.
The Mets are down from an average of 35,099 last season at this point — their best attendance year since 2009 — to 31,368.
The average drop of 3,730 is second biggest in the majors, exceeded only by the Royals, according to baseball-reference.com.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
