TV Ratings 2017 Finals Highest Since 1998

[Z Cabarkapa]

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.

Disagree - A sweep will actually help ratings for next year. If GSW becomes first team to ever sweep the playoffs it adds to their legacy as a "historic" team. People always want to watch greatness, and others watch in the hope of beating greatness and seeing the mighty fall. No coincidence that GSW sold out 82 regular season games this year (41 home/41 road) and had the highest ticket prices in the secondary/resale market.

When GSW comes to town the arenas are a buzz, and it gives mid-tier/lottery teams a chance to test themselves against the best in a sold out/playoff like atmosphere. One of the highlights of the season for lottery teams like MIN - LAL - MIA - SAC was when they treated their home fans to a big Win against the Warriors. Those nights are great for the NBA and its fans.

This is not a new phenomenon - great teams have always been good for the NBA.

[Duke4life831]

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

But the regular season ratings werent really down this year. This year there were 19 more games televised compared to last year. 11 of those games were Monday night games, which was new for TNT. If you take away the ratings for those 11 Monday night games, TNT saw the same ratings as last year. TNT actually saw a big uptick on Monday ratings with the new TNT games compared to what they showed last year. Monday ratings are going to be harder to get because Monday is usually a huge night for broadcast networks, which is why there was a downtick for the Monday games ratings. ESPN also saw an 18% rise in streaming. Overall a 6% drop was actually the normal drop for live sports this past year and less of a drop than the NFL's 8% drop.

So actually looking at it all, ratings were basically the same, just aired more games on more competitive nights for the first time, streaming viewership is up 18%, broke the attendance record for the 3rd straight year, playoffs saw a rise and the finals are seeing a rise again. I dont think the NBA has a ratings or popularity problem at all.

[Doctor MJ]

NBA finals is like Wonderwoman.

Not very much depth in story and predictable but who cares.

Lots of fire power while the star is appealing to general audience.

But most purist wants to watch Good Will Hunting and I get that.

To me true purists are less concerned with story and plot twists, and more concerned with quality of play.

To extend the analogy:

I love Good Will Hunting - which incidentally telegraphs the ending well ahead of time - but I feel like a lot of people who believe they are purists say they want another M. Night Shyamalan movie instead.

Of course the reality is that no one would be talking like this if Durant hadn't gone to GS, no matter how dominant the Warriors were. People are just bothered by the move and they are letting that ruin the experience of watching what might be the highest quality of basketball we'll ever see. It's a shame.

[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.

Disagree - A sweep will actually help ratings for next year. If GSW becomes first team to ever sweep the playoffs it adds to their legacy as a "historic" team. People always want to watch greatness, and others watch in the hope of beating greatness and seeing the mighty fall. No coincidence that GSW sold out 82 regular season games this year (41 home/41 road) and had the highest ticket prices in the secondary/resale market.

When GSW comes to town the arenas are a buzz, and it gives mid-tier/lottery teams a chance to test themselves against the best in a sold out/playoff like atmosphere. One of the highlights of the season for lottery teams like MIN - LAL - MIA - SAC was when they treated their home fans to a big Win against the Warriors. Those nights are great for the NBA and its fans.

This is not a new phenomenon - great teams have always been good for the NBA.

Well it doesn't appear from what I hear that most people outside of Warriors fans are enjoying it too much. People have enjoyed many of the great teams in the past but most all of those teams had to go through serious battles against other great teams on the road, engaging in hard fought close games much of the time.

It's bad enough when your own team is so bad you have little hope of getting to even the playoffs for years (you should be well aware of this unless you are a newer Warriors fan) but when you throw most EVERY team's fans in the league in the "my team really isn't playing for anything this year" then what's the point?

I used to like watching the Warriors. I do like that play style. But I watch sports for anticipation, edge of my seat, nailbiting finishes, GREAT games. I think some others do too.

[Doctor MJ]

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

For this to be meaningful we'd need to see how those drops compare to other major sports leagues. The reality is that as a sea, TV ratings are falling and falling and falling.

The fact that NBA playoffs ratings are nearly as high now as a peak in the 1990s when people were bolted to their couch with an IV drip of their favorite carbonated beverage is borderline miraculous.

[NW]

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.

Disagree - A sweep will actually help ratings for next year. If GSW becomes first team to ever sweep the playoffs it adds to their legacy as a "historic" team. People always want to watch greatness, and others watch in the hope of beating greatness and seeing the mighty fall. No coincidence that GSW sold out 82 regular season games this year (41 home/41 road) and had the highest ticket prices in the secondary/resale market.

When GSW comes to town the arenas are a buzz, and it gives mid-tier/lottery teams a chance to test themselves against the best in a sold out/playoff like atmosphere. One of the highlights of the season for lottery teams like MIN - LAL - MIA - SAC was when they treated their home fans to a big Win against the Warriors. Those nights are great for the NBA and its fans.

This is not a new phenomenon - great teams have always been good for the NBA.

Well it doesn't appear from what I hear that most people outside of Warriors fans are enjoying it too much. People have enjoyed many of the great teams in the past but most all of those teams had to go through serious battles against other great teams on the road, engaging in hard fought close games much of the time.

It's bad enough when your own team is so bad you have little hope of getting to even the playoffs for years (you should be well aware of this unless you are a newer Warriors fan) but when you throw most EVERY team's fans in the league in the "my team really isn't playing for anything this year" then what's the point?

I used to like watching the Warriors. I do like that play style. But I watch sports for anticipation, edge of my seat, nailbiting finishes, GREAT games. I think some others do too.

Most of the time, people talked themselves into there being challengers to the elite teams. I mean, how many teams even took the Bulls to 7 games? The Pacers and Knicks once each? Wasn't even the Finals. Shaq and Kobe's Lakers? Kings and Blazers once each.

Dubs have gotten that many game 7s already and it's not like the rest of the league is going to roll over. Moves are going to be made and teams will reach a point that fans will talk themselves into them having a chance against GS just like they've done with other elite teams

[Z Cabarkapa]

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.

Disagree - A sweep will actually help ratings for next year. If GSW becomes first team to ever sweep the playoffs it adds to their legacy as a "historic" team. People always want to watch greatness, and others watch in the hope of beating greatness and seeing the mighty fall. No coincidence that GSW sold out 82 regular season games this year (41 home/41 road) and had the highest ticket prices in the secondary/resale market.

When GSW comes to town the arenas are a buzz, and it gives mid-tier/lottery teams a chance to test themselves against the best in a sold out/playoff like atmosphere. One of the highlights of the season for lottery teams like MIN - LAL - MIA - SAC was when they treated their home fans to a big Win against the Warriors. Those nights are great for the NBA and its fans.

This is not a new phenomenon - great teams have always been good for the NBA.

Well it doesn't appear from what I hear that most people outside of Warriors fans are enjoying it too much. People have enjoyed many of the great teams in the past but most all of those teams had to go through serious battles against other great teams on the road, engaging in hard fought close games much of the time.

It's bad enough when your own team is so bad you have little hope of getting to even the playoffs for years (you should be well aware of this unless you are a newer Warriors fan) but when you throw most EVERY team's fans in the league in the "my team really isn't playing for anything this year" then what's the point?

I used to like watching the Warriors. I do like that play style. But I watch sports for anticipation, edge of my seat, nailbiting finishes, GREAT games. I think some others do too.

People ARE commenting on this series with their Remote Controls, just not on this forum. Your points are certainly valid as a team fan, but in the context of the OP and the NBA as a whole, history has shown that the NBA acquires the majority of its fans/ratings when it has historic, dominating teams. 80s Celts/Lakers, 90s Bulls, Shaq/Kobe Lakers, LBJ Heat, etc. all brought in new fans and improved ratings. The current CAVS/Warriors is also achieving this - more people are watching the Finals now than any time in the last 20 years!!

I was originally a Kansas City Kings fan (sad) and I started with GSW when I moved to the bay area in 2000 (couldn't root for SAC since they stole my team) so I certainly know how it feels to watch the Lakers and Spurs come in and kick our ass for a decade+, but those are also the games I never missed! Watching Shaq/Kobe and then Timmy/Manu destroy us in person are still all time highlights for me as a fan of the NBA even though they were pretty low moments as a fan of the Warriors. Seeing those teams also let me dream of the day when we would turn the tables...

[LakersLegacy]

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."??

Can you imagine how many would tune in if the games were better? Closer? Also I predict a longer series. NBA/TV wants that money.

[LivingLegend]

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

For this to be meaningful we'd need to see how those drops compare to other major sports leagues. The reality is that as a sea, TV ratings are falling and falling and falling.

The fact that NBA playoffs ratings are nearly as high now as a peak in the 1990s when people were bolted to their couch with an IV drip of their favorite carbonated beverage is borderline miraculous.

I get that and like I posted--its because of this Round3 narrative thats currently a cash cow for ratings. When thats over and they have to go back next season and endure massive record low drops for 6 months of Regular Season ratings while they watch viewership and attendance drop for middling/bad teams across the board, they will be searching for a solution.

Nobody is arguing that these in particular Finals are doing well ratings wise, 100% because of the Round3 narrative. My point is when thats over, they are going back to terrible RS ratings for 6 months and no Round3 narrative next year to save them in the playoffs.

[Agenda42]

Disagree - A sweep will actually help ratings for next year. If GSW becomes first team to ever sweep the playoffs it adds to their legacy as a "historic" team. People always want to watch greatness, and others watch in the hope of beating greatness and seeing the mighty fall. No coincidence that GSW sold out 82 regular season games this year (41 home/41 road) and had the highest ticket prices in the secondary/resale market.

When GSW comes to town the arenas are a buzz, and it gives mid-tier/lottery teams a chance to test themselves against the best in a sold out/playoff like atmosphere. One of the highlights of the season for lottery teams like MIN - LAL - MIA - SAC was when they treated their home fans to a big Win against the Warriors. Those nights are great for the NBA and its fans.

This is not a new phenomenon - great teams have always been good for the NBA.

Sure, the Warriors coming to town is a really big deal, but for every Warriors game, you have ten games against teams with nobody worth paying attention to. The league has a lot more Bucks versus Hornets type product to move than Warriors games, and selective TV scheduling can only mitigate that some.

As far as present ratings impact from the Warriors, it's a bit hard to extract from the raw data, but I would say you are probably looking at some amount of bad for regular season and good for playoffs. Overall, the NBA is seeing the same mild downward trends every other sports league is seeing, with fewer people watching traditional TV and little uptake on their streaming offerings. These Finals are drawing excellent viewing numbers, and certainly that has everything to do with the great teams on display.

[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

For this to be meaningful we'd need to see how those drops compare to other major sports leagues. The reality is that as a sea, TV ratings are falling and falling and falling.

The fact that NBA playoffs ratings are nearly as high now as a peak in the 1990s when people were bolted to their couch with an IV drip of their favorite carbonated beverage is borderline miraculous.

I get that and like I posted--its because of this Round3 narrative thats currently a cash cow for ratings. When thats over and they have to go back next season and endure massive record low drops for 6 months of Regular Season ratings while they watch viewership and attendance drop for middling/bad teams across the board, they will be searching for a solution.

Nobody is arguing that these in particular Finals are doing well ratings wise, 100% because of the Round3 narrative. My point is when thats over, they are going back to terrible RS ratings for 6 months and no Round3 narrative next year to save them in the playoffs.

Where are you coming up with this prediction from? Ratings werent even down this year, like stated above, if you take out the brand new Monday night games, the ratings for TNT for the regular season was identical to the year before. They just added more games on tougher nights this year with the addition of Monday games which brought down the average a little. And Streaming was up 18% over last year. Attendance set a record for the highest attendance ever for the 3rd straight year. All signs are the sport is growing and getting more and more popular. And you say once this Round 3 narrative ends what will happen, how about the NBA hyping the Warriors up as one of the greatest teams of all time and see who can knock them off their throne. People are going to tune in to watch dominant teams, always have in every sport.

[Doctor MJ]

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

For this to be meaningful we'd need to see how those drops compare to other major sports leagues. The reality is that as a sea, TV ratings are falling and falling and falling.

The fact that NBA playoffs ratings are nearly as high now as a peak in the 1990s when people were bolted to their couch with an IV drip of their favorite carbonated beverage is borderline miraculous.

I get that and like I posted--its because of this Round3 narrative thats currently a cash cow for ratings. When thats over and they have to go back next season and endure massive record low drops for 6 months of Regular Season ratings while they watch viewership and attendance drop for middling/bad teams across the board, they will be searching for a solution.

Nobody is arguing that these in particular Finals are doing well ratings wise, 100% because of the Round3 narrative. My point is when thats over, they are going back to terrible RS ratings for 6 months and no Round3 narrative next year to save them in the playoffs.

You didn't address the part about other sports ratings and the general fact that ratings are going down everywhere.

[TomShoe]

Damn pretty sad the apologists are going to use these to actually prove the the league is going somewhere just smh. Even though we all know this playoffs has just been a one sided build-up to the actual main event which is this series and everyone knew that. Shills taking the ball and running to the opponents goal again smh

Wow it's almost like people will watch the only 2 teams worth caring about....wp NBA

[MalonesElbows]

Playoffs doesn't mean regular season. Regular season was down 6%. The salary cap was heavily revised down next year, that's all you need to follow to gauge NBA health.

[Scizzup]

Playoffs doesn't mean regular season. Regular season was down 6%. The salary cap was heavily revised down next year, that's all you need to follow to gauge NBA health.

Regional local tv rating will continue to decline throughout all sports, should be nothing new. TNT rating increased. The fact that the finals rating is this high in 2017 says a lot when their a whole lot different options to catch a game stream/social media/out events, etc.

[Bruh Man]

Interesting the playoffs this year have been very boring, a bunch of blow out games. People thought finals would make up for it but it hasn't so far.

[killacalijatt]

There are ALOT of bandwagon Dubs fans. No surprise in ratings as Dubs are the greatest show on earth currently

[Sixerscan]

Playoffs doesn't mean regular season. Regular season was down 6%. The salary cap was heavily revised down next year, that's all you need to follow to gauge NBA health.

It was revised down because of how much people spent on free agents last summer. Had nothing to do with the revenue side.

[DIO]

ABC reports ratings for Game 3 up 14 percent from last year

wow

[r3demption]

Well a majority of people tried to vote zaza in to an all star game . Nothing new