Continuing a subpar start to the NBA season, the squabbling Warriors delivered their smallest national TV audience in three years.
Thursday’s Warriors-Rockets NBA regular season game earned a 0.8 rating and 1.29 million viewers on TNT, down 56% in ratings and 57% in viewership from Warriors-Celtics last year (1.8, 3.00M), but up 98% and 111% respectively from 2016 (Sixers-T’Wolves: 0.42, 609K).
TNT’s national telecast was blacked out in the Bay Area. A handful of nationally televised Warriors games are subject to local blackout each season, though rarely one as high profile.
Golden State’s blowout loss was the team’s least-watched game on ESPN, ABC or TNT in nearly three years — since a November 2015 matchup against Denver on ESPN. That game, a late addition to the schedule during the Warriors’ season-opening 24-game winning streak, aired opposite Sunday Night Football and was blacked out in the Bay Area (0.6, 912K).
The Spurs-Clippers nightcap had a 0.6 (-25%) and 882,000 (-32%).
The games faced tougher Thursday Night Football competition than a year ago, as the competing Packers-Seahawks game increased 25% in ratings and 22% in viewership from the same Thursday last year.
On Wednesday night, Blazers-Lakers drew a 1.3 and 2.07 million on ESPN — down a tick in ratings and 3% in viewership from Sixers-Lakers last year (1.4, 2.14M), but up 26% and 28% respectively from 2016 (Grizzlies-Clippers: 1.05, 1.61M). It was the first Laker game to post a decline in viewership this season.
Pelicans-T’Wolves had a 0.8 (-38%) and 1.25 million (-39%) earlier in the night.
Going back to last Friday, ESPN drew a 0.8 and 1.35 million for Celtics-Jazz — down 20% and 16% respectively from last year (Bucks-Spurs: 1.0, 1.60M). There was no comparable window in 2016.
A month into the season, NBA ratings are trending downward. Of the 27 games on ESPN and TNT that can be compared to last year, 20 have posted a decline in ratings and/or viewership. That includes 17 games that have declined by double-digits.
