Ratings for the NBA Playoffs were mixed through the first round. According to the Sports Business Daily, ratings for 24 NBA Playoff games on TNT averaged a 2.3 cable rating, flat from last year according to their calculations. Considering that last year was arguably the best first round the NBA has seen in decades, that is quite a feat.
While TNT saw only negligible declines from last year (including a 3% dip in households), ESPN and ABC plummeted. ESPN averaged a 1.9 cable rating for eight first round playoff games, down 17% from last year. ABC averaged a 2.7 national rating for four telecasts, down 16% from last year.
So why did TNT do well, while network partners ESPN and ABC faltered?
There are several explanations, the biggest being that in the first round, TNT aired the most high-profile games. There were three series that drew big ratings: Warriors/Mavericks, Suns/Lakers and Spurs/Nuggets. TNT aired five out of the six Warriors/Mavericks games, four out of five Spurs/Nuggets games, and three out of five Suns/Lakers games. ESPN aired only one game each from Golden State/Dallas and San Antonio/Denver, and ABC aired two games from Phoenix/Lakers.
ESPN ended up airing two games from Nets/Raptors, two games from Jazz/Rockets (making up half of the network’s paltry first round schedule), and one game each from Pistons/Magic, Bulls/Heat and the aforementioned Warriors/Mavericks and Spurs/Nuggets series. To put into context how low the ratings were for some of those contests, ESPN drew national ratings of 1.1, 1.3 and 1.6 on the first Saturday of the playoffs with Nets/Raptors, Magic/Pistons and Jazz/Rockets, respectively. Game 6 of Nets/Raptors was down 37% from the comparable game between Cleveland and Washington last year.
One could also factor in that TNT is committed to NBA Playoff coverage, while ESPN deems the games less important than regular season baseball and NASCAR Busch Series races. There seems to be a mentality at ESPN that if you put the games on television, people will watch — no matter how much the product is ignored and generally denigrated.
ESPN has placed the NBA Playoffs on the bottom rung of the sports ladder, with Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Yankees/Red Sox, the NFL Draft, the Kentucky Derby, De La Hoya/Mayweather and every other conceivable sporting event taking precedence. Nobody is saying that the NBA should dominate sports media for two solid months, and events like the Derby and the De La Hoya/Mayweather fight are expected to be high-profile. However, it cannot be overlooked that ESPN’s television ratings are in part a consequence of lack of commitment both in promotion and in game presentation.
The few NBA fans who tuned into Friday night’s Game 6 between Toronto and New Jersey likely noted the myriad of times that the game would return from commercial to a split-screen: on the left was a NASCAR race, and on the right was the game. And inexplicably, Mike Tirico begins schilling for a sporting event airing opposite the game, virtually telling viewers to drop by and devote their Nielsen ratings to another sport.
This kind of mismanagement can very easily aid in huge ratings declines. And the numbers tell the story. NBA fans are not tuning in to what ESPN/ABC is selling.
Will this change in the second round? Last year, ESPN drew a 3.3 average cable rating in the second round, the highest ever for the network in that round of the playoffs. Starting Thursday, ESPN airs three NBA playoff games in three days (Detroit/Chicago on Thursday, Utah/Golden State on Friday, and New Jersey/Cleveland on Saturday). After that, the network is scheduled to air only four more second round games, all of them potential Game 6s.
Match-ups do matter far more than mismanagement (after all, fans keep tuning into FOX’s abhorrent presentation of Major League Baseball games), and if ESPN is able to get close, competitive series, then the ratings should rebound. However, it would not be surprising to see TNT continue to outclass ESPN in television ratings.
