For the second time this season, ESPN, ABC and TNT’s loss was NBA TV’s gain.
Sunday’s Warriors/Spurs NBA regular season game earned a 1.5 rating and 2.6 million viewers on NBA TV, per Nielsen fast-nationals — the network’s largest audience since becoming Nielsen rated in 2010. The previous high was 1.4 million for the same matchup in January. Prior to this year, the high water mark was 1.1 million for a Pacers/Hawks playoff game in 2014.
Golden State’s 72nd win of the season, tying the all-time record set by the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, peaked with 3.7 million viewers from 9-9:15 PM ET.
For the season, Warriors/Spurs would rank 25-27th out of the 138 nationally televised NBA games (not including Saturday’s games on ESPN and ABC). That is no small feat given NBA TV’s coverage was blacked out in the home markets.
Locally, coverage on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area earned a network-record 18.47 rating — comfortably ahead of the previous mark set by January’s Spurs/Warriors game (16.08). The local broadcast peaked at a 22.5 rating. Prior to this year, the top rated program in CSNBA history was a 2010 Giants/Padres baseball game that had a comparably pedestrian 11.83 rating.
In San Antonio, Fox Sports Southwest delivered a 15.53 rating per Sports Business Journal writer Austin Karp — the network’s second-highest ever for a regular season Spurs game. The previously mentioned January meeting had a 14.41.
The Warriors’ four games against the Spurs this season were bizarrely scheduled, considering that both teams were widely expected to have excellent seasons. Two of the games aired on NBA TV and one aired opposite the NCAA Tournament. By comparison, all four Warriors/Clippers games aired on ESPN, ABC or TNT without facing onerous competition.
Final ratings for Saturday’s games were not available, but Warriors/Spurs was the top NBA game of the weekend in the metered markets. Its 2.0 overnight rating topped both Warriors/Grizzlies on ESPN (1.7) and Cavaliers/Bulls on ABC (1.6) the previous night, which cannibalized each other.
(Sun. numbers from Turner Sports, twitter.com/csnwarriors, twitter.com/austinkarp)
