First week of action sees over 2 million minutes of views
Rochester, Minn. – The decision by the Northwoods League to allow its streaming of all games in the 2021 season to be viewed free-of-charge live and (AVOD) has resulted in unprecedented engagement in the League’s first week of action (May 31-June 6). 116,000 webcast and on demand views lasting 17:43 minutes per view has created an unparalleled level of interest in the nation’s largest baseball League in the first week of the 2021 season.
The numbers do not reflect the number of OTT views of streamed games as those numbers were not currently available for games available on Apple TV, Roku, Android and FireStick. Over 2,050,000 Minutes of viewing time were logged into by Northwoods League fans for the week.
“From the viewership numbers we are seeing, I think it can be called a resounding success. It seems apparent that the fans are enjoying the opportunity to watch 4-camera HD coverage of their favorite teams and players for Free. From the League perspective it is excellent exposure nationwide and worldwide for our brand and our team brands. Seems like a win-win,” said Glen Showalter, President of the Great Plains Division.
The length of fan engagement steadily increased as the week went on as the Sunday, June 6th games had an average view of 23:01 minutes. The June 1st rivalry game webcast of the Wisconsin Rapids Rafters vs. Wisconsin Woodchucks led the week with 3,649 individual views. The Fond du Lac Dock Spiders vs. Kenosha Kingfish game on June 6th had the longest engagement per viewer for the week with the average view lasting 29:59 minutes.
Northwoods League websites experienced 793,492 page views for the week (113,000 views per day) as the full slate of League games resulted in a 99.4% increase in views over the same week in 2019. The displaying of League statistics on the League websites via its proprietary, in-house developed scoring system, Scorebook, are viewed as the reason for the increase in views, week over week, from the 2019 season. The Scoreboard page alone, of the League website, experienced 23,440 Unique views for the week resulting in over 173,000 page views as fans checked in often for real-time updates on scores.
“The change from the Pointstreak scoring system (a third-party system) to our own scoring and statistical system has resulted in a monumental increase in fan engagement, in essence, doubling the views we have captured on our websites for the first week of the Northwoods League 2021 season versus the 2019 season. Very valuable,” said Northwoods League Chairman, Dick Radatz, Jr.
The in-house developed Northwoods League mobile APP also experienced 2,784 new downloads for the week.
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The Northwoods League is the proven leader in the development of elite college baseball players. Now in its’ 28th season, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 22 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, 260 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including three-time All-Star and 2016 Roberto Clemente Award winner Curtis Granderson, three-time Cy Young Award winner and World Series Champion Max Scherzer (WAS), two-time World Series Champions Ben Zobrist and Brandon Crawford (SFG) and World Series Champion Chris Sale (BOS). As well as 2019 Rookie of the Year and Home Run Derby Champion Pete Alonso (NYM) and MLB Gold Glove finalist and 2019 Second Team All-MLB shortstop Marcus Semien (TOR). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League website. For more information, visit www.northwoodsleague.com or download the Northwoods League Mobile App on the Apple App Store or on Google Play.