Every single year since the start of the NBA’s current six-year television deal, ABC has set a record low average rating (2.6 in 2003, 2.4 in 2004, 2.3 in 2005, 2.2 in 2006 and 2.0 in 2007). In other words, one expects terrible ratings on the Pussycat Dolls network.
However, TNT has been the home of the NBA for two decades now. NBA fans know what to expect from TNT, and ratings are usually decent.
This past year, however, ratings fell 8% — from a 1.3 cable rating to a 1.2. Is TNT losing ground among NBA fans? Before one makes that judgement, all the factors in play must be taken into account.
This year, TNT had to compete with the NFL for five Thursdays of the season. While NFL Network ratings were not spectacular by any means (Thursday games drew national ratings of 2.3, 1.8, 1.5, 1.7 and 1.8), they were high enough to erode potential viewership for NBA games on TNT.
Additionally, many NBA games televised by TNT were awful. In contrast to previous years, TNT had no opportunity to dump an unappealing game in favor of one more pertinent to the standings. Charles Barkley said it best: “For some reason TNT felt like we had an obligation to show the Sacramento Kings every two weeks. Everybody wants to say all these teams are great. That?s not true. A lot of these teams stink.” Bad games were a major factor in the poor ratings; game selection was so bad that even a Clippers/Sonics game managed to weasel its way onto national television.
Obviously, a drop from 1.3 to 1.2 is not very spectacular. And TNT is still the cable carrier of choice; ESPN averaged a 1.1 rating this year (though both TNT and ESPN averaged 1.1 million HH for the season).
TNT should not necessarily be headed into panic mode. But this year should serve as a lesson to the NBA schedule makers. First, instead of head-to-head battle with the NFL, TNT should air several November and December doubleheaders on Tuesday nights. Secondly, instead of featuring awful, small-market teams like the Sacramento Kings, TNT should make sure that only teams with some semblance of talent make their airwaves. And most importantly, the NBA should schedule more than two games on Thursday nights. That way, should a match-up that looked fantastic at the start of the season turn out to be a dud, the network can replace it with a game that might actually interest the viewing public.
