Anyone thinking that the NBA’s TV ratings would suffer because of the Lakers and Celtics getting bounced from the playoffs are being proven wrong.
Television ratings from games played this week are all better than last year’s comparable second-round matchups, including a series that involved the Lakers.
Monday’s Oklahoma City Thunder-Memphis Grizzlies game drew 5.6 million viewers compared to last year’s 5 million viewers for the Lakers-Suns series.
The Thunder-Grizzlies game had better ratings than Tuesday’s Chicago Bulls-Atlanta Hawks game, which drew 5.1 million viewers.
That’s a significant difference when you consider that Chicago and Atlanta have much larger television markets than Oklahoma City and Memphis, not to mention the Bulls have Derrick Rose, the NBA’s MVP.
When the Miami Heat closed out their series against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday, TNT drew 6.7 million viewers and the late game between the Thunder and Grizzlies drew 5.4 million viewers.
Some might believe that the Heat need to make the NBA Finals to have strong TV ratings, capitalizing on the presence of LeBron James and Dwyane Wade.
But James isn’t exactly the NBA’s best TV draw. In 2007 when he was with the Cleveland Cavaliers, James was part of the lowest-rated NBA Finals in modern history, with the four-game series against the San Antonio Spurs averaging less than 7 million viewers per contest.
Last year’s NBA Finals between the Lakers and Celtics generated an average of 18.1 million viewers per game, the highest ratings since Michael Jordan played.
Those numbers were expected because of the matchup between two of the NBA’s traditional marquee teams, but ABC has already told advertisers to expect at least a 5-10 percent drop this year.
Regardless if the Heat or Bulls reach the NBA Finals, fans will tune in based on the strength of rising Western Conference teams like the Thunder and Grizzlies.
With great built in story lines and exciting young players like Kevin Durant, the NBA TV ratings won’t suffer much because Kobe Bryant and the Lakers are playing golf.
