TV Ratings 2017 Finals Highest Since 1998

[ropjhk]

Just because something is highly viewed it doesn't mean it's good.

[The_Hater]

I'm not surprised. The NBA has been making executive decisions based upon improving TV ratings without regard for basketball quality for years. That said, the ratings have plenty of time to plummet before the series is over, especially if it doesn't become more competitive. Ratings will always be good as long as LeBron is playing, and isn't going up against SAS.

The quality of play is excellent. It's never been better I wouldn't confuse that with the lack of competition.

[bwgood77]

I figured people would want to tune in to watch the one or hopefully two weeks of potentially good basketball for the 2016-17 season. Unfortunately, so far, it has still been a snooze. They desperately need a good game and Cavs win in game 3 if they want to save the ratings for the future.

If there are only 4 games the NBA ratings being up for those 4 games for the season won't trump the fact that they had more games with slightly lower ratings previously. They want more games.

[KnightofHyrule]

https://www.apnews.com/593ea2688d094465bba07710edb6836f/NBA-Finals-ratings-highest-since-Jordan's-last-title-in-1998

The NBA has received criticism from some circles for the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers meeting in The Finals for the third straight time, but television ratings have been excellent after the first two games of the series.

This year's Finals are the most-watched since Michael Jordan's final championship with the Chicago Bulls in 1998.

The two wins for the Warriors have averaged 19.6 million viewers, which is a five percent increase from 18.6 million in 2016.

Sunday's game drew an average of 20.1 million viewers, up 13 percent from Game 2 last year and the most for a Game 2 since Chicago and Utah met in 1998. The telecast peaked with 23.1 million viewers.

lol @ whining people here saying 'BORING' 'NBA SUCKS' blah blah blah

How about "If you don't like it, don't watch it."??

Enough of this nonsense. People watch basketball games with the hope that SOMETHING is going to happen in their favor, which is an interesting and competitive game from start to finish. And people will continue to watch this year's NBA Finals hoping for that, simply because the result of last year's NBA Finals gives them hope.

But next year? Not so sure. Golden State and Cleveland entered the Finals a combined 24-1. If the favored team continues to win EVERY game, what will happen is that eventually, people will assume basketball games are a forgone conclusion, and they will stop watching. Trust me on that.

Also, although ratings are high during the game, I am truly curious of how much people are watching the final 5 minutes of these games. Because I guarantee you that stat will certainly be an all-time low. Every game is a blow out. It feels like 90% of the games being played end up feeling like a done deal with 5 mins left to go, which is ridiculous.

The NBA sucks right now. Players are weak minded.....giving up in the middle of games and forming super teams. If Cleveland doesn't make this series interesting, this free agency will be the first one where I'll be craving and cheering for literally ANY blockbuster move that adds parity to any conference.

[Axel]

I figured people would want to tune into to watch the one or hopefully two weeks of hopefully good basketball for the 2016-17 season. Unfortunately, so far, it has still been a snooze. They desperately need a good game and Cavs win in game 3 if they want to save the ratings for the future.

If there are only 4 games the NBA ratings being up for those 4 games for the season won't trump the fact that they had more games with slightly lower ratings previously. They want more games.

Combine the boring and uninteresting games with Mike Breen's over-the-top excitement and I immediately want to tune out. How once person can feign enthusiasm for all 130 points scored by GSW in a blowout is beyond me. He deserves a handsome salary to shill so hard for the NBA.

[Mind_Odyssey]

I'm more interested in next years ratings. You'd have to be living under a rock to not believe the hype machine pumped out by ESPN would generate ratings this year.

Come back to me if Golden State sweeps and Cleveland doesn't improve in the offseason.

[NW]

I'm more interested in next years ratings. You'd have to be living under a rock to not believe the hype machine pumped out by ESPN would generate ratings this year.

Come back to me if Golden State sweeps and Cleveland doesn't improve in the offseason.

There will always be a narrative to sell that will draw.

The Sixers had no chance against the Shaq/Kobe Lakers, but It was Iverson's first trip to the Finals. It was Mutombo vs. Shaq. The Bulls were dominant but they still sold them vs. the Suns (Barkley), the Jazz rematch (Jazz with homecourt, Last ride of the Bulls, etc.) etc.

As long as you got a draw like GS, there will be a narrative to sell on the other side. It's not like teams are just going to give up and not make moves. The Spurs are already trying to get CP3 and have the "we were beating the Dubs by 25 when Kawhii went down" narrative. Cavs GM Daddy LeBron will obviously make sure moves are made. Boston is in position to do some things, the Rockets can get significant cap room, the Wizards are some depth away from being interesting.

There will be teams that the fans and pundits will be able to talk themselves into next year.

[turk3d]

Who do most fans come out to see? It's the superstars and there's sure enough of them on both Cleveland and the Warriors and this is what the league is all about, selling their superstars and the superstar paraphernalia. And aside from the team that is losing (in addition to those teams that have been knocked out) where are most of the fans coming from?

Locations where there are no franchises, and the Global market? And globally, who are they fans of? The superstars which is perhaps where some of the leagues biggest revenues come from. Guys like Lebron, Curry, Durant, Wade, Shaq, Jordan are they guys they want to see and their getting plenty of superstar highlights during these playoffs.

Most of the fans overseas probably don't know half the players (unless they happen to be Euro players and couldn't care less. There's plenty of interest which is evidenced by the numbers being put out. It's the league that's losing out with loss of revenue due to all the short series.

[bwgood77]

I'm more interested in next years ratings. You'd have to be living under a rock to not believe the hype machine pumped out by ESPN would generate ratings this year.

Come back to me if Golden State sweeps and Cleveland doesn't improve in the offseason.

What's sad about the NBA is that we are already wondering what the ratings will be for next year's Cavs/Warriors finals matchup.

[joeyAdaMan]

I'm more interested in next years ratings. You'd have to be living under a rock to not believe the hype machine pumped out by ESPN would generate ratings this year.

Come back to me if Golden State sweeps and Cleveland doesn't improve in the offseason.

What's sad about the NBA is that we are already wondering what the ratings will be for next year's Cavs/Warriors finals matchup.

this...if the Warriors continue to show that they're MILES ahead of every other team in the NBA...i'd imagine some fans will tune out....the scary part is...this is only Durant's first season with the Warriors

[righterwriter]

Any team can be as good as the Warriors. All they have to do is draft well, develop the talent, add well priced FAs and veterans via trade, make great coaching hires, create a winning culture of team-first basketball, and not give out any ridiculous contracts so that they have the space to add a stud that wants to get on board when times are good.

The Spurs have done this for years with undeniable success. The Jazz and Celtics are doing a heck of a job at it now and the Wizards aren't too far off, either.

Don't blame GS for doing it right, blame the other teams for not.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

This shouldn't come as surprise though. NBA is all about casual fans and they want to see Curry, KD, Lebron and Korver (ok maybe not Korver) play.

This is exactly why Silver doesn't think they is anything wrong with the NBA, why would he when he sees the ratings?

[Tai]

While I agree that low-key bashing RealGM is in bad taste, it does feel like because of Durant going to the Warriors, most here have sworn off the season, then see the ratings, and are like "Wait how can that be? I've barely watched any of the season, how can anyone else want to watch this???" And the reality is, the world doesn't work like this.

At least on the NBA Finals, it's not like the games haven't been close in the 1st half. The problem is the Cavs give it up in the 3rd quarter; they're being outscored by 24 in the 3rd this series. For context, they've only been outscored 11 points in the 1st quarter, and are dead even with the Warriors in the 2nd. The point is, if the games were actually close going into the 3rd, the ratings would probably be a little better as is than they actually were, and heck, maybe the Cavs figure that out and make this a series.

But I do feel people have wanted to peddle around this "championship's already decided, I'm already not gonna watch" narrative, and when the ratings show people are watching after all, they're shell-shocked. The thing is, the casual fan isn't gonna beat up on Durant like most people here would, same for when Lebron went to the Heat.

[joeyAdaMan]

Any team can be as good as the Warriors. All they have to do is draft well, develop the talent, add well priced FAs and veterans via trade, make great coaching hires, create a winning culture of team-first basketball, and not give out any ridiculous contracts so that they have the space to add a stud that wants to get on board when times are good.

The Spurs have done this for years with undeniable success. The Jazz and Celtics are doing a heck of a job at it now and the Wizards aren't too far off, either.

Don't blame GS for doing it right, blame the other teams for not.

nobody should be blaming Golden State for anything as they haven't done anything wrong....but, make no mistake about it...no franchise can repeat/emulate what the Warriors have done over the last 7-8 years...we'll never see anything like this ever again

[devilsace]

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.

This is partly wrong though...One of the biggest reasons the Salary Cap shot up was the TV deal that the NBA made...if viewership keeps going down during the RS...when its time to reup the TV deal the NBA will take a big hit...Also even if Viewership is up in the Playoffs it is down across the board in the RS and the RS is alot longer and will cost the NBA much more money

[JellosJigglin]

With the number of stars on the floor it shouldn't really be a surprise that the mainstream audience is interested. It's like watching a blockbuster movie with a star-studded cast. It may blow up at the box office but still be a complete dumpster film.

[JellosJigglin]

Any team can be as good as the Warriors. All they have to do is draft well, develop the talent, add well priced FAs and veterans via trade, make great coaching hires, create a winning culture of team-first basketball, and not give out any ridiculous contracts so that they have the space to add a stud that wants to get on board when times are good.

The Spurs have done this for years with undeniable success. The Jazz and Celtics are doing a heck of a job at it now and the Wizards aren't too far off, either.

Don't blame GS for doing it right, blame the other teams for not.

nobody should be blaming Golden State for anything as they haven't done anything wrong....but, make no mistake about it...no franchise can repeat/emulate what the Warriors have done over the last 7-8 years...we'll never see anything like this ever again

True. That's partly because of luck. Curry's injuries really kept his value down, which allowed them to add talent while he exploded into an MVP. Luck + good management = success.

They're going to have some tough decisions to make in a couple years though.

[joeyAdaMan]

Any team can be as good as the Warriors. All they have to do is draft well, develop the talent, add well priced FAs and veterans via trade, make great coaching hires, create a winning culture of team-first basketball, and not give out any ridiculous contracts so that they have the space to add a stud that wants to get on board when times are good.

The Spurs have done this for years with undeniable success. The Jazz and Celtics are doing a heck of a job at it now and the Wizards aren't too far off, either.

Don't blame GS for doing it right, blame the other teams for not.

nobody should be blaming Golden State for anything as they haven't done anything wrong....but, make no mistake about it...no franchise can repeat/emulate what the Warriors have done over the last 7-8 years...we'll never see anything like this ever again

True. That's partly because of luck. Curry's injuries really kept his value down, which allowed them to add talent while he exploded into an MVP. Luck + good management = success.

They're going to have some tough decisions to make in a couple years though.

yeah...just the combination of good drafting/smart+team friendly(Steph) contracts/luck with timing(cap spike+Durant's FA) is insane....that's what allowed this absurdly talented team to happen

[Hello Brooklyn]

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.

This is partly wrong though...One of the biggest reasons the Salary Cap shot up was the TV deal that the NBA made...if viewership keeps going down during the RS...when its time to reup the TV deal the NBA will take a big hit...Also even if Viewership is up in the Playoffs it is down across the board in the RS and the RS is alot longer and will cost the NBA much more money

The playoffs are way more important to the NBA than the regular season. It doesn't matter if its longer.

They have way more potential for viewership in May/June because they are not competing with anyone.

No matter how well the regular seasons do they will never put them on top during those time slots because of the NFL and March Madness.

[devilsace]

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.

This is partly wrong though...One of the biggest reasons the Salary Cap shot up was the TV deal that the NBA made...if viewership keeps going down during the RS...when its time to reup the TV deal the NBA will take a big hit...Also even if Viewership is up in the Playoffs it is down across the board in the RS and the RS is alot longer and will cost the NBA much more money

The playoffs are way more important to the NBA than the regular season. It doesn't matter if its longer.

They have way more potential for viewership in May/June because they are not competing with anyone.

No matter how well the regular seasons do they will never put them on top during those time slots because of the NFL and March Madness.

But that still doesnt make sense...yes the playoffs are more important and its good that they are generating revenue...but the revenue from the regular season is still very important...They dont have to be on the top but they do have to produce...im pretty sure the TV deal was not over a Billion dollars for just the Playoffs, but the Thursday TNT games and ABC games during the regular season games viewership drop must hurt...This could all become a bigger issue when the next TV deal will be negioted