Ratings were down across the board for the NBA Playoffs. However, Disney networks ABC and ESPN saw the greatest year-to-date declines.
For the entire postseason, ABC fell 24%, including a 44% decline for coverage of two Western Conference Final games. ESPN fell 27%, incurring a 33% drop for its coverage of three Western Conference Final games. Both ESPN and ABC saw major viewer erosion during the postseason; both networks drew over a million fewer viewers than last year. For the playoffs, ABC somehow managed to average 4.2 million viewers — down 21% from the 5.3 million viewers the network averaged for the playoffs last year, but still slightly respectable. ESPN averaged 2.8 million viewers, down 27% from an average of 3.9 million viewers last season. For the Conference Finals, the drop in total viewers was embarrassing; ABC fell 44% from an average of 8.2 million viewers in 2006 to an average of 4.5 million this year, while ESPN fell 31% from an average of 5.8 million viewers last year to 4.0 million this year.
ESPN2, which only aired one playoff game (the incredibly unappealing Game 3 between the Toronto Raptors and New Jersey Nets) saw year-to-date declines of 44% in ratings and 56% in total viewers.
TNT saw the smallest declines of any network, and the network can credit that to airing nine out of eleven games involving the Golden State Warriors, controversial games four and five of the Phoenix/San Antonio series and the entire Eastern Conference Finals — which started slowly, but finished with very high ratings. Game 6 of the Eastern Conference Finals drew a 5.8 cable rating, making it the highest rated NBA game on cable of the past two years. Overall, TNT saw ratings decline by 12%, from a 3.1 cable rating to a 2.7. However, total viewers for TNT declined only 8%, from 3.6 to 3.3 million viewers. While TNT drew its lowest average rating ever for the Conference Finals (4.1 cable rating), that was down only 11% from a 4.6 cable rating last year, and total viewers was down just 9% — from 5.5 million viewers in 2006 to 5.0 million viewers this year.
