The Braves drew their largest local television audience of the season Sunday.
Their road win over the San Diego Padres generated a 5.10 rating on Fox Sports South in the Atlanta TV market, meaning about 119,000 households watched on average.
The previous highest rating in the Atlanta market for a Braves game on Fox Sports South or Fox Sports Southeast this season was 4.93 (about 115,000 households) for a June 25 win over the Chicago Cubs. Sunday’s rating was the Braves’ highest in Atlanta on the Fox regional networks since a Sept. 3, 2018, game against the Boston Red Sox (5.14).
The rating is the number of homes, out of every 100 in the market, watching a telecast on average.
Braves telecasts on Fox Sports South/Southeast averaged a 3.21 rating in the Atlanta market before the All-Star break, a 6% increase from the same point last season. That gain follows a 51% jump in viewership in the first half of 2018 from the first half of 2017.
In other Braves TV news, Paul Byrd has made his season debut as a game analyst alongside play-by-play announcer Chip Caray on the team's current road trip. Byrd filled in for Jeff Francoeur during the weekend series at San Diego and will continue to do so through the series at Milwaukee. Byrd also will join Caray in the booth for two series later this month: July 26-28 at Philadelphia and July 29-31 at Washington.
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TODAY’S LEADOFF LINKS
> SEC Media Days, the league's annual preview of football season, will return to downtown Atlanta next year. The much-hyped four-day event will be held at the College Football Hall of Fame in July 2020 for the second time in three years. See story here.
> Meanwhile, this year's SEC Media Days opened Monday in Hoover, Ala. Mark Bradley wrote about quarterback Kelly Bryant, who is gone from Clemson and in limbo at Missouri. Read the column here.
> The Falcons reached agreement with defensive tackle Grady Jarrett on a four-year $68 million contract just before a 4 p.m. deadline Monday. See D. Orlando Ledbetter's report here.
