ABC continues to suffer for loading its NBA schedule with Knicks and Lakers games.
Sunday’s Knicks/Heat NBA regular season game drew a 2.5 overnight rating on ABC, down 11% from Knicks/Thunder last year (2.8), but up 9% from Bulls/Thunder in 2012 (2.3). Lakers/Clippers later in the day drew a 2.4 overnight, down a third from the same match-up last year (3.6), and down 27% from Heat/Celtics in 2012 (3.3).
Of the 13 NBA telecasts on ABC that can be compared to last year, 11 have had declines — each by double-digits. Nine of those 11 games involved the Lakers, Knicks, or both.
With that said, it should be pointed out that ABC’s highest non-Christmas overnight this season was for Lakers/Knicks on January 26 (3.3).
