ABC put up fairly decent numbers for NBA coverage last week.
Last Sunday’s Celtics/Nuggets game drew a 2.3 final rating on ABC, up 10% from Celtics/Suns last year (2.1), and up 21% from Pistons/Suns in ’08 (1.9). Both of those games aired in earlier timeslots.
Excluding the Olympics, Celtics/Nuggets was the second-highest rated sporting event of last weekend, behind only NASCAR’s Auto Club 500 (5.6).
Earlier in the day, Cavaliers/Magic drew a 1.9 final rating. There was no game on the comparable night last year.
To put that in perspective, the previous meeting between the Cavaliers and Magic (February 11) drew a 1.7 rating on cable network TNT.
