According to a press release, TNT’s opening night NBA coverage had its highest ratings since the 2003 opener. Taken straight from the press release (which can be found here):
“TNT NBA opening night key demographics:
? Adults 18-34 up 61 percent (790,000 from 491,000)
? Adults 18-49 up 49 percent (1,423,000 from 958,000)
? Adults 25-54 up 38 percent (1,235,000 from 895,000)
? Men 18-34 up 48 percent (572,000 from 392,000)
? Men 18-49 up 39 percent (988,000 from 712,000)
? Men 25-54 up 35 percent (869,000 from 646,000)
TNT’s NBA Opening Night doubleheader outdelivered:
? Friday Night Lights (NBC), CSI: NY (CBS), Help Me, Help You (ABC) and Standoff (FOX), NCIS (CBS) and Boston Legal (ABC) among Men 18-34.
? All Cable Networks among Adults 18-34, Men 18-34 and Men 18-49
? All Cable Networks and CBS and CW among Men 18-34
The games averaged a rating of 1.7 with nearly 2 million total viewers. Obviously, these numbers are small when comparing them to broadcast networks. However, on cable, these are very decent numbers (along the line of the highly popular UFC telecasts on Spike TV), not too far from some early round playoff games (though there is still a significant disparity).
