Despite lacking both home markets, ESPN scored a big increase for Warriors/Raptors Wednesday night. In other news, TNT paid the price for a featuring the NBA’s lesser lights and Houston’s rout of Louisville hit a Thursday night high on ESPN.
No Home Markets, No Problem For Warriors/Raptors
- Warriors/Raptors earned a 1.3 final rating and 2.0 million viewers on ESPN’s NBA Wednesday, up 34% in ratings and 43% in viewership from Pelicans/Thunder last year (0.95, 1.4M) but down 24% and 25%, respectively, from Spurs/Cavaliers in 2014 (1.7, 2.6M). Figures did not include either home market, as Toronto does not count toward U.S. television ratings and ESPN’s coverage was blacked out in the Bay Area.* In the nightcap, Grizzlies/Clippers increased 4% in ratings (from 1.01 to 1.05) and 7% in viewership (from 1.5M to 1.6M) compared to Bulls/Suns last year.
TNT Pays Price For Scheduling Sixers
- Sixers/T’Wolves had a mere 0.4 final rating and 609,000 viewers on the NBA on TNT Thursday night, down 64% in ratings and 62% in viewership from Bucks/Cavaliers last year (1.1, 1.6M), down 50% in both measures from Clippers/Heat in 2014 (0.8, 1.2M), and the smallest NBA audience on TNT, ESPN or ABC in six years — since Warriors/Grizzlies on ESPN2 in November 2010 (530K). The Bulls/Jazz nightcap had a 0.5 and 734,000, down 74% in ratings and 73% in viewership from Warriors/Clippers last year (1.9, 2.7M) and down 38% and 32%, respectively, from Bulls/Kings in ’14 (0.8, 1.1M).
Louisville/Houston Hits Thursday Night High
- ESPN scored a 1.5 final rating and 2.4 million viewers for Thursday’s Louisville/Houston college football game, up 264% from ECU/UCF last year, ratings for which were unavailable (669K), and up 88% and 91%, respectively, from Cal/USC in 2014 (0.8, 1.3M). The Cougars’ blowout win was the most-watched Thursday night game of the season, topping the previous high of 2.2 million for Houston/Cincinnati in week three. It was not the top weeknight game of the season, however, trailing Stanford/Washington on a Friday night in week five (3.3M) and Mississippi/Florida State on Labor Day (8.4M).
* Under the NBA’s new television contract, ESPN is allowed to air a maximum of 13 games involving a single team (up from ten under the previous deal). However, three of those 13 games must be blacked out locally.
