The NCAA's social strategy to promote fall championships; More traction for volleyball; A-B's marketing roadmap for Bud Light and MLB Stands Up For Cancer.
The NCAA's social strategy to promote fall championships; More traction for volleyball; A-B's marketing roadmap for Bud Light and MLB Stands Up For Cancer.
I will be in New York for Media Innovators later today and Thursday, and then take in Bedlam as Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. We'll meet in football for the last time in the same conference on Saturday afternoon. I am really looking forward to that. And this is your morning Buzz cast for Wednesday, November 1st. Good morning. I'm a Matt Core Major League Baseball. Has to hope the D backs can steal a win in game five on Wednesday night in Arizona because the ratings story around the World Series continues to be troublesome as we could see a record low viewership unless this series gets extended. So far, we've just seen a run of light numbers for the World Series, and it's unlikely to change with Tuesday's blowout by the Rangers who took a three to one series lead. So let's go through the numbers in greater detail. Game three on Monday marked the second straight telecast in the matchup to deliver a record blow World Series audience, there was a record Low Sunday.
There's a record Low Monday Game three on Monday. It was also down nearly 30% from Astros Phillies game three last year, which was on a Tuesday night. So on Monday the NFL won the night. Monday Night Football drew 15.2 million viewers across A, B, C and ESPN. That was for the Raiders Lions matchup, and that's according to s BJ's Austin Carp. Contrasting that baseball got 8.1 million viewers from Monday night's game after three games, Fox's averaging 8.5 million viewers for the series on Pace for the least watch World Series on record. The previous low Dodgers raise that was during the pandemic D backs and Rangers is also down 23% through three games compared to the Astros Phillies last year. So no matter how you spin it right now, the numbers are definitely unfortunate because the drop for the World Series comes after Major League Baseball saw its most watched League Championship series round since 2018.
Those series D backs, Phillies Rangers, Astros saw viewership up 15% over last year. So you saw an increase in the LCS, you saw an 8% drop for the League divisional series, and you saw a 17% drop for the wildcard. So some numbers still to be worked through. We will see how the final numbers come out, but baseball overall needs to get the D backs to win Wednesday, move this series back to Texas for game six and hopefully a game seven to try to build on these numbers. Let's move on. Anheuser-Busch InBev knows it has some work to do to steady sales, especially around Bud Light, and it has a plan. It's going to concentrate its marketing, not surprisingly on sports and music as it tries to jumpstart sales of Bud Light. After a very controversial summer, bud Light sales started falling in really April after the Brewer's partnership with Dylan Mulvaney.
And that was well publicized and that's when Modelo took over the spot as the best selling beer in the United States over Bud Light. In Anheuser Busch's last quarter report, it shows that Bud Light is still not fully recovered. Sales are down nearly 30% in the four weeks ending October 21st compared to the same period a year ago. Overall sales of Bud Light have fallen nearly 20% this year. So during a call with investors on Tuesday, ABS leadership said the company is focused on promoting Bud Light at events like football games and concerts, specifically targeting the NFL and college football. They also talked up Bud Light's recent deal to become the official beer for the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the UFC. That is a six year marketing deal and it's well into the nine figure. So this is the largest deal in UFC's history. It is a big deal for Anheuser-Busch.
And so Anheuser-Busch has its playbook to jumpstart sales for Bud Light, and it's going to use sports as it always has to really be the roadmap and the runway and the vision for sales increases in the future. Let's shift to college sports because another big marker for women's volleyball. Over the weekend, as Fox set a record for viewership for college volleyball on Sunday, most of the country received Wisconsin, Minnesota immediately following a 1:00 PM Eastern time, early NFL game on Fox. So the remaining portion of the country saw Ohio State, Michigan, and so it always helps, always helps to have the NFL as a lead-in. But the volleyball match delivered. It drew 1.6 million viewers on Fox regardless of a lead-in or not. That is a good number and it beat the previous record of 1.1 million viewers for the 2021 NCAA Championship on ES ESPN two. You'll see more of this.
There has been a concerted effort for years to find more traditional television windows for college volleyball, more traditional media coverage for college volleyball. And the numbers are showing there is an audience. This is a very good indicator of that. And all this aligns a new NCAA marketing effort as the NCAA is investing around $500,000 in a social media marketing effort for the next few months till the end of this year that we'll see the NCAA run a social campaign surrounding six fall sports championships. Yes, women's volleyball is one of them. Men's soccer, women's soccer, cross country, and FCS football. So they're running this campaign to bring better awareness to these sports and they really believe each of these sports has shown signs of significant growth. So the $500,000 invested in the campaign will pay for varying components, talent, videographers, creative resources and other things. And it's an investment in these championships that haven't seen that type of promotion.
The NCAA said it's targeting these sports where they are seeing strong engagement metrics and that's why they're doubling down because they see real potential for growth and expansion. As part of this campaign, the NCAA's digital team visited eight campuses in August and they would've traveled to 43 campuses by the end of November to story tell and to grab footage for this campaign. And you'll see the fruits of their efforts on the NCAA social platforms through the end of the year. And finally, one of the most powerful moments in sports happened last night during Game four of the World Series, as Major League baseball and MasterCard continued to team up to make a dramatic statement about fighting cancer with their annual moment during the game where players, umpires, coaches and fans hold up placards for those impacted by cancer in honor of the stand up to cancer happened last night.
Incredibly powerful emotional gets me every time and it has greater meaning to me as one of the placards in that audience at the ballpark. Last night had the name of my brother, Mark David Matco died last week at the young age of 63 after bravely battling prostate cancer for over a decade. Some of you listeners may have met my brother Mark. I was always proud to show him off at major sports events. He lived with overflowing energy and optimism and kindness. He left eight remarkable impression on everyone he touched, and he was the source of tremendous positivity. He focused on what was important to him, love of family, friends, laughter, music, the Grateful Dead Formula One and the New England Patriots. He loved each one of those. He lived an active, healthy, and inspired lifestyle and I will sure miss him. He's gone at 63 and I appreciate all the words and notes of support
During this tough time. So thank you. So that is your morning buzz cast for Wednesday, November 1st. I made Matco as I'll be traveling for the next couple of days. Joe Lair will bring you the buzz cast Thursday and Friday. I'll speak to you again on Monday until we chat again. Stay healthy, be good to each other. I'll talk to you down the road.