(SUNRISE, FL) – Fox Sports Net Florida today announced that the network's average rating for the Florida Marlins telecasts during the month of September was the best in the team's franchise history.
Generating an average Nielsen household rating of 5.28, September 2003 was the highest September average rating in ten years, beating out the 5.0 average September rating set during the 1997 World Championship season. The 98 Marlin's games televised on Fox Sports Net in 2003 averaged a 3.68 rating, the second highest season average rating in the team's 11 year history.
The 1997 Marlins regular season games averaged a 3.90 rating.
One rating point represents approximately 15,500 television households in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale DMA, which consists of Dade, Broward and Monroe Counties. All Marlins home games televised on Fox Sports Net are simulcast in Spanish, accessible by using the SAP feature available on most television sets.
Fox Sports Net Florida reaches more than 4.9 million households in Florida. Fox Sports Net Florida's programming includes Major League Baseball's Florida Marlins and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, the National Hockey League's Florida Panthers, the University of Miami, and the University of South Florida, The Best Damn Sports Show Period, NASCAR and 54321. Fox Sports Net Florida is managed by Rainbow Sports Networks.
Rainbow Sports Networks is a division of Rainbow Media Holdings LLC, a subsidiary of Cablevision Systems Corporation (NYSE:CVC). Fox Sports Net reaches more than 79 million households nationwide and is a service of National Sports Partners, equally owned by Rainbow Media Holdings, Inc., and Fox Entertainment Group. Rainbow Sports Networks incorporates Rainbow's 50% ownership in Fox Sports Net and Fox Sports National Advertising and the ownership and management of Fox Sports Net regional networks in five of the nation's largest markets: Chicago, San Francisco, New England, Ohio and Florida.