On This Day in History: The Birth of Live Sports on Television with the 1947 World Series

Yankees shortstop Phil Rizzuto is out at third during the first televised World Series in 1947.Photo byJohn Rooney/AP

In 1947, televisions were a luxury, with fewer than 50,000 in use in the United States. Yet, on September 30th, a pioneering cultural event unfolded with the first broadcast of the World Series on American television. The 'Subway Series'  saw the New York Yankees triumph over the Brooklyn Dodgers 5-3 in Game 1, marking the first World Series with a Black player, the legendary Jackie Robison of the Dodgers. 

Photo byBettmann/Getty Images

Earlier in the year, with the growing anticipation of this history-making game on the horizon, the newly growing television stations – run by NBC ABC and the now-extinct DuMont – decided they wanted to cover the games. A significant hurdle stood in the way; however, the Mutual Broadcasting System, a radio network with no television division, held the rights to televise the games. The issue, however, was cleared up quite quickly with, you guessed it, money. Just a few days before the big game, negotiations concluded when Baseball Commissioner Albert “Happy” Chandler and the sponsors of the planned radio coverage - Gillette and Ford Motor Company agreed to $65,000 for the rights to televise the World Series. They also agreed to allow all three New York TV stations and those connected to them to broadcast the game, providing the broadest possible exposure.

WORLD SERIES FIRST TV BROADCAST IN 1947.Photo byhttps://pdxretro.com/

Millions of individuals listened to the game from their radios, and 73,000 fans watched it live from Yankee Stadium. However, an estimated 3.5 million individuals witnessed the game in a whole new way, with Bob Haymes of NBC describing the action. Of course, the broadcast had its flaws and issues. As you can imagine, sunlight and shadows would obscure the network's cameras. At one point, the network's equipment began to have problems. The television screens they watched from were much smaller – 12 diagonal inches or less. The low-definition images were black and white and came from just a few cameras. No extreme close-ups were possible, and there was no instant replay.

An estimated 3.5 million Americans viewed the first televised World Series at bars, restaurants, and storefronts.Photo byBettmann/Getty Images

The impact of this cultural event can't be understated. It drew millions of Americans to an entertainment format at a time when there were no national networks, only a handful of stations, and somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 TVs in the entire country, as professor and author James Walker details in his book "Center Field Shot: A History of Baseball on Television."

The public's embrace of the World Series on television, along with the generous coverage of the telecasts by the press, provided an essential boost to the newly forming television industry. The Sporting News reported that the first televised World Series increased sales for new television sets in cities across the country to levels not seen since the early days of radio. Today, an estimated 57% of the American population watches live sports, even at least weekly on television, and digital live sports viewership is expected to grow to 90 million by 2025.

It all started on this day in 1947. Years later, in 1955, fans would watch the Dodgers and Yankees face off again in another World Series, but this time, it was broadcast in color. The Dodgers would defeat the Yankees that season in their only championship while the team was based in Brooklyn.