Though solid, ratings and viewership for the NBA Conference Finals have not been able to measure up to last season.
Wednesday’s Suns/Lakers Game 2 drew a 4.4 U.S. rating and 7.0 million viewers on TNT, down 4% in ratings and viewership from Magic/Cavaliers Game 1 on the comparable night last year (4.6, 7.3 mil), but up 7% and 13%, respectively, from Spurs/Lakers Game 1 in ’08 (4.1, 6.1 mil).
Compared to Game 2 of last year’s Nuggets/Lakers West Finals on ESPN, Wednesday’s game was down 10% and 11%, respectively, from a 4.9 and 7.9 million viewers.
Suns/Lakers Game 2 is the second straight Conference Final game to have a decline in ratings and viewership versus the comparable night last year. Monday’s Suns/Lakers Game 1 drew similar numbers, but there was no comparable Monday night game last year.
Dating back to April 29, 14 of the last 23 NBA Playoff games on cable have had declines in ratings compared to last year.
Of the 9 games to buck that trend, four came during the Cavaliers/Celtics series and two during Lakers/Jazz. Comparisons for the other three games were not available.
That said, the numbers for the Conference Finals have been far from bad. Through Game 2 of each series, TNT and ESPN are averaging a 4.5 rating for the Conference Finals (3 games) — down from last year (4.7, 4 games), but up from 2008 (3.9, 4 games), 2007 (2.7, 3 games) and 2006 (3.7, 4 games).
The 4.5 average is the second-highest through this point of the Conference Finals on cable since the current cable-heavy format went into effect in ’02.
