Record low ratings, that is. From the Sports Business Daily:
Amazingly, the game drew a 1 rating. The NBA is stunningly lucky that the game did not draw a 0.9 or worse. That 1.0 rating caps a terrible March for NBA games on ABC, where no game drew a 2.0 rating.
March ’07 ratings for the NBA on ABC:
- March 4: Lakers/Suns, 1.9
- March 11: Nuggets/Kings, 1.3
- March 18: Mavericks/Pistons, 1.3
- March 25: Suns/Kings, 1.0
Those four games were down 5%, 35%, 23% and 28%, respectively, from the comparable NBA games on ABC last year. The aggregate rating of 5.5 is still 25% lower than the 7.3 rating that North Carolina/Georgetown drew on Sunday afternoon.
These are NHL ratings. And while the major reason for the low ratings can be attributed to the NCAA Tournament, ABC has to be worried. The network is virtually ensured another year of record low averages for NBA regular season games on network television.
What should ABC do to avoid these horrible ratings? Can ABC avoid these horrible ratings? Those issues will be addressed in a subsequent post.
