TNT’s NBA coverage is down 11 percent so far this year, mainly because of “tougher competition: namely, Big East college football, which has proven to be an unexpected Nielsen bonanza for ESPN on Thursday nights, when TNT schedules its exclusive NBA doubleheaders.”
ESPN’s Thursday night football is over (save for the MAC Championship game this week), but TNT will still have to compete with the NFL Network’s Thursday NFL games. It is possible that by the end of football season in January, TNT’s ratings could be down at a significant margin. TNT execs are “[confident] that its NBA numbers will bounce back, and maybe even eclipse last year’s.”
Weak games, like the upcoming Charlotte Bobcats/Orlando Magic game in December, aren’t going to help TNT’s fortunes. ESPN is also down, but only at 2%.
