Oct. 20 (Bloomberg) -- World Series television ratings may slump now that the Tampa Bay Rays' triumph over the Boston Red Sox puts two teams with limited appeal outside their home markets in Major League Baseball's championship round.

The Rays beat the Red Sox 3-1 last night at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, winning the best-of-seven American League Championship Series 4-3. They meet the Philadelphia Phillies in the first game of the World Series starting Oct. 22.

The World Series pits teams from the 4th- and 12th-largest media markets in the U.S. against each other, said Ed Goren, president of News Corp.'s Fox Sports, which will televise the Fall Classic. The Series begins Oct. 22 and will end Oct. 30 if it goes the full seven games.

``Advertisers always hope for the Yankees and the Dodgers,'' said John Herman, associate media director at ad agency Crispin, Porter & Bogusky in Miami. ``The Tampa Bay Rays wouldn't be their first, second, third, fourth or even fifth choice to win the American League.''

The last matchup of two small-market teams, St. Louis and Detroit in 2006, produced the lowest ratings ever for a World Series with an average 15.8 million viewers tuning in for each game. Two years earlier an average 25.5 million watched as the Boston Red Sox defeated the Cardinals to end an 86-year championship drought.

`A Little Premature'

``I'm not on a cell phone hanging off the ledge of a building,'' Fox's Goren said. ``It's a little premature.''

The Series can succeed for Fox if the games stay competitive, said Andrew Donchin, director of TV ad buying at Carat USA in New York. In this year's Super Bowl, a comeback by the National Football League's New York Giants against the favored New England Patriots kept fans on their couches until the last play, he said.

``What made that wasn't the matchup between New York and Boston but the game itself,'' he said. ``For a competitive series between small-market teams, the audience will still be engaged. It may not be as large, but it will be paying attention.''

The typical Super Bowl draws many more viewers than a World Series. The Giants and Patriots lured an average U.S. audience of 97 million, while last year's World Series games drew 17.2 million each, according to Nielsen Co.

Low ratings won't hurt Fox's revenue because the ad time is already sold, Goren said. The company has agreed to give advertisers including MasterCard Inc. and Anheuser-Busch Cos. extra spots if audience targets aren't met, Fox spokesman Lou D'Ermilio said. He wouldn't specify the targets. News Corp. wouldn't disclose the cost of a spot.

Seven Games

A Series that goes seven games will give Fox more spots to sell, Herman said. Ads in the higher-rated, later games cost more. In 1997's match-up between the Cleveland Indians and Florida Marlins, Game 7 drew 39 percent of U.S. households watching TV and 25 percent of all households, according to Nielsen. That was almost twice the audience for the first game of that year's Series.

The last World Series to go seven games was in 2002, when the Angels defeated the San Francisco Giants.

Fans of the Phillies, who last reached the Series in 1993, and the Rays don't buy the notion that ratings would be higher if teams from Boston, Chicago or Los Angeles had won early playoff rounds and made the Series.

Chicago and Southern California are the two largest U.S. media markets outside New York, while Boston ranks seventh and the Red Sox have a large following throughout New England.

`Easy to Root'

``I understand why Fox might be disappointed about L.A. and Boston,'' said Brian Chapman, a lawyer from Wilmington, Delaware. ``The Phillies are easy to root for. A lot of them have been there since they were young, and they play hard.''

In Florida, where the Rays have blossomed after finishing last in their division for five of the last six years, baseball is a welcome distraction from the slumping economy, said St. Petersburg Mayor Richard Baker.

Home foreclosures more than doubled in Florida in the 12 months ended in July, according to RealtyTrac Inc. The median price of a home in the Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater area has dropped 20 percent in the past year, according to the Florida Association of Realtors.

``There's only so much `Squawk Box' you can handle,'' said Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, referring to CNBC's business news program. ``It's great to just root for the Rays.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Tim Mullaney in New York at tmullaney1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: October 20, 2008 11:22 EDT