Ronald Acuna’s much-anticipated major-league arrival has stirred enthusiasm among Braves fans, as evidenced by the local TV ratings for his first game Wednesday night.
Fox Sports Southeast’s telecast of Acuna’s debut at Cincinnati posted a 3.24 rating in the Atlanta TV market, up 33 percent from an average of 2.43 for all previous Braves games this season. An average of about 79,000 local households watched Wednesday’s game, up from a previous average of about 59,000 this season.
In addition, the game had the largest streaming audience of any Braves game since the 2016 launch of MLB games on the Fox Sports Go app.
Jeff Genthner, senior vice president and general manager of Fox Sports South and Fox Sports Southeast, had no doubt what caused the spikes in viewership: Acuna’s arrival.
“I can’t even imagine what other reason there would be,” Genthner said Thursday. “It’s absolutely the Acuna debut.
“Our group here did a really good job of promoting the debut.”
Only one Braves game this season averaged a higher TV rating than Wednesday’s: a 3.4 rating for a Saturday game against the Mets. But Acuna’s debut had the highest peak rating – 4.72 from 9:30-9:45 p.m. – of any game this season, as well as the most minutes streamed and the largest number of unique streaming viewers.
Even before the arrival of baseball’s consensus No. 1 prospect, Braves telecasts had shown positive momentum this season. Through 23 games, the ratings are up 11 percent compared with the same point last season, Genthner said.
