TV Ratings 2017 Finals Highest Since 1998

[LivingLegend]

The first 4 games nhl stantly cup playoffs added together don't match game 1 of NBA finals ratings. Enough said

And the NBA Finals dont come close to matching even the Final 4 round of NCAA basketball. So?

My point is, by the numbers, you create a top heavy league, you get top heavy ratings. The RS is almost on life support by NBA standards but doing well in the last month or two of the season. Thats great, but broadcasting companies and teams are losing ratings and ratings=money big time for the first 6 months the league exists only to hope to make up the ratings/revenue in the confrence championships and finals.

Im not a business major, but logic tells me thats a fine line to walk.

[Patches Perry]

Do people realize that ratings are not immediate? If Movie X is awesome, the sequel to Movie X is going to attract a ton of people, but if the sequel to Movie X sucks, the next one in line will naturally lose the audience to disinterest.

Of course ratings are up, we're experiencing the the gains of last years epic finals. People are tuning into the sequel because of the first one, but if this sequel sucks, people will tune out next time.

I'm not saying ratings will drop, but my subjective experience from people on the forum and people in my everyday life tells me that interest is dropping rapidly. If ratings do drop, it will be late in this series at earliest, or more likely next season.

[LivingLegend]

Do people realize that ratings are not immediate? If Movie X is awesome, the sequel to Movie X is going to attract a ton of people, but if the sequel to Movie X sucks, the next one in line will naturally lose the audience to disinterest.

Of course ratings are up, we're experiencing the the gains of last years epic finals. People are tuning into the sequel because of the first one, but if this sequel sucks, people will tune out next time.

I'm not saying ratings will drop, but my subjective experience from people on the forum and people in my everyday life tells me that interest is dropping rapidly. If ratings do drop, it will late in this series at earliest, or more likely next season.

Exactly, which is why I said they are riding the coat tales of this 'Round 3" narrative. Once thats gone after a poor series that didnt live up to the hype, what does everybody think will happen to the ratings next year?

[Patches Perry]

Do people realize that ratings are not immediate? If Movie X is awesome, the sequel to Movie X is going to attract a ton of people, but if the sequel to Movie X sucks, the next one in line will naturally lose the audience to disinterest.

Of course ratings are up, we're experiencing the the gains of last years epic finals. People are tuning into the sequel because of the first one, but if this sequel sucks, people will tune out next time.

I'm not saying ratings will drop, but my subjective experience from people on the forum and people in my everyday life tells me that interest is dropping rapidly. If ratings do drop, it will late in this series at earliest, or more likely next season.

Exactly, which is why I said they are riding the coat tales of this 'Round 3" narrative. Once thats gone after a poor series that didnt live up to the hype, what does everybody think will happen to the ratings next year?

5 games out of 32 games in the entire 2nd, 3rd and final round so far that have been settled by less than 10 points. Warriors may maintain ratings because they're stockpiled with exciting players to watch, but overall the league will not be in a healthy place in the next couple years unless some competition emerges.

[LivingLegend]

Do people realize that ratings are not immediate? If Movie X is awesome, the sequel to Movie X is going to attract a ton of people, but if the sequel to Movie X sucks, the next one in line will naturally lose the audience to disinterest.

Of course ratings are up, we're experiencing the the gains of last years epic finals. People are tuning into the sequel because of the first one, but if this sequel sucks, people will tune out next time.

I'm not saying ratings will drop, but my subjective experience from people on the forum and people in my everyday life tells me that interest is dropping rapidly. If ratings do drop, it will late in this series at earliest, or more likely next season.

Exactly, which is why I said they are riding the coat tales of this 'Round 3" narrative. Once thats gone after a poor series that didnt live up to the hype, what does everybody think will happen to the ratings next year?

5 games out of 32 games in the entire 2nd, 3rd and final round so far that have been settled by less than 10 points. Warriors may maintain ratings because they're stockpiled with exciting players to watch, but overall the league will not be in a healthy place in the next couple years unless some competition emerges.

You got it. The NBA is currently in a all you can eat Vegas buffet right now overloading themselves knowing they are going to be living off granola bars for the next year after the trip is over.

[Duke4life831]

The problem isnt the ratings in this Finals series. This was their cash cow after a abysmal playoffs. Whats going to happen is the interest and the ratings after this 'Part3' ratings fest is over and they struggle to sell any sort of narrative for next season during the regular season to keep interest.

I honestly think it does well now--but they mortgaged the future interest to achieve short term gain.

Here is the proof:

NBA television viewership took a dive during the 2016-17 season, according to an analysis by Sports Business Journal.The SBJ analysis, which looked at local ratings for 27 of the 30 NBA teams, found a 14 percent drop from the previous year. Twenty regional sports networks reportedly saw their ratings decline, including 15 that experienced double-digit decreases. National television ratings were also down in 2016-17, suggesting a broader trend in NBA viewership. NBA game ratings on regional sports networks were down 15 percent in total.

The NBA’s steepest drops are in Dallas and Orlando. The Mavericks’ ratings average has fallen 53 percent so far during a season in which the team has stayed well below the .500 mark. The Magic’s local game ratings are down 50 percent as the team has crawled to the second worst record in the Eastern Conference. Even the normally reliable Spurs ratings registered a 43 percent drop so far this season.

The numbers have in most cases fallen back to 2008 levels, and the league is even further back of the college game. For a league in fairly obvious decline, it is doing about as well as possible. ABCs regular season ratings are at an all time low in 2016-2017 down 17% since the 2015 season and have dipped below their second worst rating season in 2006-2007

You can say the Playoffs were "abysmal" but in reality the ratings were up for the entire Playoffs.

Second of all the regular season was down, but it was down across all sports. Including the NFL.

Seems to be a problem of people watching less regular season games due to lack of time or a variety of other factors. People aren't watching as many regular season games in general.

In reality the NBA makes more money during the palyoffs than the entire regular season combined. Before then people are more focused on the NFL and March Madness. May/June is when the NBA is king.

As far as the "narrative" for next season, people are going to want to watch the Warriors again.

When the Lakers almost swept their way through the whole Playoffs, I don't remember the ratings declining for the next year. In fact they went up.

There will always be narratives to play. People are not going to lose interest in the NBA because there is one dominant team. Thats complete nonsense.

People lose interest in the NBA when there is more "parity" and the NBA Finals ends up being the Pistons vs the Spurs.

Nobody wants to watch that.

Ratings for all of television is dropping every year. Streaming is becoming more and more popular each year. Also if people are losing interest why did we just see the NBA break the attendance record in the regular season for the 3rd straight season. The sport is growing, there are just many different ways to watch TV nowadays with streaming, so of course the TV numbers are going to decrease.

From the last reports I saw the streaming audience has gone up over last year. So if the playoff ratings are up, streaming ratings are up, ticket sales are up and Finals ratings are up. Id say the NBA is doing pretty damn good right now with its growth in popularity.

[Tai]

The problem isnt the ratings in this Finals series. This was their cash cow after a abysmal playoffs. Whats going to happen is the interest and the ratings after this 'Part3' ratings fest is over and they struggle to sell any sort of narrative for next season during the regular season to keep interest.

I honestly think it does well now--but they mortgaged the future interest to achieve short term gain.

Here is the proof:

NBA television viewership took a dive during the 2016-17 season, according to an analysis by Sports Business Journal.The SBJ analysis, which looked at local ratings for 27 of the 30 NBA teams, found a 14 percent drop from the previous year. Twenty regional sports networks reportedly saw their ratings decline, including 15 that experienced double-digit decreases. National television ratings were also down in 2016-17, suggesting a broader trend in NBA viewership. NBA game ratings on regional sports networks were down 15 percent in total.

The NBA’s steepest drops are in Dallas and Orlando. The Mavericks’ ratings average has fallen 53 percent so far during a season in which the team has stayed well below the .500 mark. The Magic’s local game ratings are down 50 percent as the team has crawled to the second worst record in the Eastern Conference. Even the normally reliable Spurs ratings registered a 43 percent drop so far this season.

The numbers have in most cases fallen back to 2008 levels, and the league is even further back of the college game. For a league in fairly obvious decline, it is doing about as well as possible. ABCs regular season ratings are at an all time low in 2016-2017 down 17% since the 2015 season and have dipped below their second worst rating season in 2006-2007

\

A link to your article would be nice, but I'd like to know what impact stars sitting more games as on this, especially for national TV games where stars made it a point to sit those out.

[Michael Lucky]

Not surprising. There are more stars in this NBA final than at any other point in the last two decades. Stars = Bigger Ratings. Product doesn't matter. It's why casual fans always vote on name recognition for an all star game than they do based on recent production.

[giberish]

Live sports is one of the only things left that can draw a lot of viewers on television.

ABC must be giddy with these ratings.

TNT crushed it with the playoff ratings and now ABC is crushing it with the finals ratings. Yup Im sure everyone involved with the NBA are giddy with the ratings for the past month.

They'd be happier if a 6 or 7 game finals appeared likely. The extra games matter a lot for revenue.

[Coxy]

At the end of the day, the masses want to witness this Golden State juggernaut in all its glory, as Lebron try's to take it down. It's a great plot, and it's great drama, and so far, the Warriors have produced some amazing basketball.

Your whinging has been noted though Realgm, those of you know who you are. Fact is though, it's just a few, and the masses love it.

[Duke4life831]

Live sports is one of the only things left that can draw a lot of viewers on television.

ABC must be giddy with these ratings.

TNT crushed it with the playoff ratings and now ABC is crushing it with the finals ratings. Yup Im sure everyone involved with the NBA are giddy with the ratings for the past month.

They'd be happier if a 6 or 7 game finals appeared likely. The extra games matter a lot for revenue.

Ya but if its a sweep the NBA can turn the narrative into GS being the greatest team of all time and they could stretch that narrative out all through next year. All during the playoffs they could sell, who can end the streak in the playoffs. A sweep would be an easy sell for long time growth.

[jbk1234]

This was Warriors first year with Durant & the rubber match between the Cavs & Warriors so on one level, it's not surprising. But I don't think it's sustainable to have the West coast team sweep its playoff series & the East coast team lose one game without fans eventually losing interest. I say that as a fan of one of the teams.

Casual fans tune in the playoffs but they're also the same fans who didn't know there was a game last night during the regular season.

[MastermindLV]

But but the Warriors are ruining basketball

[Teko]

How about the TV ratings for the rest of the playoffs? I know for fact that I never watch as little playoff games in my life.

For instance, I didn't watch any ECF games and I did't bother to watch game 2~4 of WCF games.

[JackZZ]

There are few possibilities as for the cause of high tv rating, some that comes to mind are:
1. Ppl loves GSW.
2. Bandwagon fans.
3. The eternal hate on Lebron is surreal. Ppl just enjoys watching him getting beaten to a pulp.
4. Cavs' fans still believing in another 3-1 comeback like last year.
We all know for sure the the high tv rating isn't caused by competitive entertaining games.

[alessandrux]

This is like looking at raw stats, it looks nice and (surprisingly ) fits well with the narrative of the GSW fans.

But speaking in a baskebtall analogon it's like Westbrook, super nice stats but at the expense of everyone else on the team sucking.


In the long run it is very likely that the low competitive drive results in lower regular season ratings, which then will lead to decreasing revenue.

As a counterargument one could say that this super-stacked GSW-team might get some audiences into basketball through sheer name-recognition/worldwide popularity (like everyone on the world knows Messi/Ronaldo in a few years probably almost everyone will know Curry/Durant/Lebron).

And sarcastically speaking the bad teams have found another way to make their season interesting, the race to the bottom.

[Scizzup]

people are going to watch Lebron and GSW. People love to see Lebron or GSW win/lose.

And stop posting regional ratings for regular season. It's down across sports and that mostly due to all the new options available to catch a game, other events during that time (election), twitter etc.

[Dominator83]

The problem isnt the ratings in this Finals series. This was their cash cow after a abysmal playoffs. Whats going to happen is the interest and the ratings after this 'Part3' ratings fest is over and they struggle to sell any sort of narrative for next season during the regular season to keep interest.

I honestly think it does well now--but they mortgaged the future interest to achieve short term gain.

Here is the proof:

NBA television viewership took a dive during the 2016-17 season, according to an analysis by Sports Business Journal.The SBJ analysis, which looked at local ratings for 27 of the 30 NBA teams, found a 14 percent drop from the previous year. Twenty regional sports networks reportedly saw their ratings decline, including 15 that experienced double-digit decreases. National television ratings were also down in 2016-17, suggesting a broader trend in NBA viewership. NBA game ratings on regional sports networks were down 15 percent in total.

The NBA’s steepest drops are in Dallas and Orlando. The Mavericks’ ratings average has fallen 53 percent so far during a season in which the team has stayed well below the .500 mark. The Magic’s local game ratings are down 50 percent as the team has crawled to the second worst record in the Eastern Conference. Even the normally reliable Spurs ratings registered a 43 percent drop so far this season.

The numbers have in most cases fallen back to 2008 levels, and the league is even further back of the college game. For a league in fairly obvious decline, it is doing about as well as possible. ABCs regular season ratings are at an all time low in 2016-2017 down 17% since the 2015 season and have dipped below their second worst rating season in 2006-2007

You can say the Playoffs were "abysmal" but in reality the ratings were up for the entire Playoffs.

Second of all the regular season was down, but it was down across all sports. Including the NFL.

Seems to be a problem of people watching less regular season games due to lack of time or a variety of other factors. People aren't watching as many regular season games in general.

In reality the NBA makes more money during the palyoffs than the entire regular season combined. Before then people are more focused on the NFL and March Madness. May/June is when the NBA is king.

As far as the "narrative" for next season, people are going to want to watch the Warriors again.

When the Lakers almost swept their way through the whole Playoffs, I don't remember the ratings declining for the next year. In fact they went up.

There will always be narratives to play. People are not going to lose interest in the NBA because there is one dominant team. Thats complete nonsense.

People lose interest in the NBA when there is more "parity" and the NBA Finals ends up being the Pistons vs the Spurs.

Nobody wants to watch that.

Spurs/Nets was even more boring my friend. Just sayin

[Hello Brooklyn]

The problem isnt the ratings in this Finals series. This was their cash cow after a abysmal playoffs. Whats going to happen is the interest and the ratings after this 'Part3' ratings fest is over and they struggle to sell any sort of narrative for next season during the regular season to keep interest.

I honestly think it does well now--but they mortgaged the future interest to achieve short term gain.

Here is the proof:

NBA television viewership took a dive during the 2016-17 season, according to an analysis by Sports Business Journal.The SBJ analysis, which looked at local ratings for 27 of the 30 NBA teams, found a 14 percent drop from the previous year. Twenty regional sports networks reportedly saw their ratings decline, including 15 that experienced double-digit decreases. National television ratings were also down in 2016-17, suggesting a broader trend in NBA viewership. NBA game ratings on regional sports networks were down 15 percent in total.

The NBA’s steepest drops are in Dallas and Orlando. The Mavericks’ ratings average has fallen 53 percent so far during a season in which the team has stayed well below the .500 mark. The Magic’s local game ratings are down 50 percent as the team has crawled to the second worst record in the Eastern Conference. Even the normally reliable Spurs ratings registered a 43 percent drop so far this season.

The numbers have in most cases fallen back to 2008 levels, and the league is even further back of the college game. For a league in fairly obvious decline, it is doing about as well as possible. ABCs regular season ratings are at an all time low in 2016-2017 down 17% since the 2015 season and have dipped below their second worst rating season in 2006-2007

You can say the Playoffs were "abysmal" but in reality the ratings were up for the entire Playoffs.

Second of all the regular season was down, but it was down across all sports. Including the NFL.

Seems to be a problem of people watching less regular season games due to lack of time or a variety of other factors. People aren't watching as many regular season games in general.

In reality the NBA makes more money during the palyoffs than the entire regular season combined. Before then people are more focused on the NFL and March Madness. May/June is when the NBA is king.

As far as the "narrative" for next season, people are going to want to watch the Warriors again.

When the Lakers almost swept their way through the whole Playoffs, I don't remember the ratings declining for the next year. In fact they went up.

There will always be narratives to play. People are not going to lose interest in the NBA because there is one dominant team. Thats complete nonsense.

People lose interest in the NBA when there is more "parity" and the NBA Finals ends up being the Pistons vs the Spurs.

Nobody wants to watch that.

Spurs/Nets was even more boring my friend. Just sayin

Yeah Spurs/Nets was terrible for ratings. I can admit that.

[anish23]

The first 4 games nhl stantly cup playoffs added together don't match game 1 of NBA finals ratings. Enough said

remember the Chinese watch the NBA... and so do some Indians.