NBA Playoff Ratings Are Through The Roof

Tuesday, May 20, 2008


Okay enough of picking on ESPN for the day let's get into something they and TNT are doing right and that's NBA coverage during this year's Playoffs. Not only do I really have nothing bad to say about any of the announcers (JVG is kind of annoying at times), but ratings for both networks are killing last year's numbers.

ABC is up 31% over 2007, ESPN is up 28%, and TNT is up 14%. Obviously Star Power, Game Sevens, and the series matchups are the main cause of this but both networks have been doing a splendid job. They market each others games and even refer to various personalities on the opposite channel during games.

If the Conference Finals are as competitive as they look then these numbers are only going to go up. The NBA Finals would be a toss up though with the Lakers in the mix it's certainly going to help, but another Spurs-Pistons Final could be worse than last year's Spurs Cavs ratings. The lowest for the league ever.

Posted by Awful Announcing- at 4:00 PM

8 Comments:

I have something bad to say about the announcing. Reggie Miller is awful at it. He insisted that the ice on the floor last night was popcorn for a good 5 minutes even as the broadcast was showing closeups.

Anonymous said...
May 20, 2008, 4:40:00 PM  

So basically their ratings went back up to where they are supposed to be?

I agree AA, Spurs/Pistons would be the worst final ever....

Actually, Spurs in the final kills it all.

TJX said...
May 20, 2008, 4:40:00 PM  

@ Same page,


Doug Collins, JVG, Matt Devlin, and Miller are growing on me, but that's it.

TJX said...
May 20, 2008, 4:40:00 PM  

the ratings still arent that good and arent a whole lot better than a sport espn doesnt care about on a network noone gets

BackBergtt said...
May 20, 2008, 4:57:00 PM  

I do like how ESPN and TNT acknowledge each other's existence. It's like they are teaming up to actually (gasp) help the sport.

GMoney said...
May 20, 2008, 5:10:00 PM  

Ratings are up all over the place compared to last year, but generally not where they were at the start of this TV contract.

Also, these stories are usually based on Household ratings - which are completely useless. These people sell demos.

Here's the real story:

http://tvsportsratings.com/?p=35

Anonymous said...
May 20, 2008, 5:30:00 PM  

It certainly doesn't hurt that the Lakers are in the WC Finals. The nation's second largest TV market has a tendency to help ratings in that regard.

Anonymous said...
May 20, 2008, 5:36:00 PM  

JVG probably wouldn't work in a two-man booth, but he's the best third man around. His complaints about the way games are officiated with regard to physicality and consistency are dead-on, and he always makes the correct call regarding who blew a defensive assignment (too many announcers just say that whoever's man got the dunk messed up, but JVG knows better -- sometimes it's someone else who started the chain reaction).

Reggie, on the other hand, is only good for entertainment value, which isn't good enough when you've got Hubie and JVG doing their things on other nights.

May 20, 2008, 6:39:00 PM  

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