NBA All-Star ratings continue their steady decline
I'm trying to cut back on my addiction to ratings items in the newspaper, so I saved this one for the blog, because . . . well, it's just a blog, so what's the difference?
The ratings for the NBA All-Star game have dropped every single year since the (not so) big event moved to TNT, bottoming out at 6.3 million viewers or so last weekend.
In 2003, the game attracted 8.2 percent of homes with the channel. In '04, the figure fell to 6.2. Then 6.0. Then 5.2. Then 5.1. Then 4.5.
The numbers are even more grim if you consider the percentage for all U.S. homes, whether or not they have TNT.
Last weekend's figure by that measure was 3.8. In 2002, the game's final year on a broadcast channel, NBC did an 8.2.
(I'm sure I've mentioned this before, but Connie Hawkins has the biggest right hand I ever have shaken, at least in terms of finger length. The biggest right hand I ever have shaken in overall massiveness was Luther Wright's, with Shaq a close runner-up.)
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Comments (6)
Maybe if they on a reasonable hour people would watch. You've got a Sunday with almost no competition and you put the game on at 9pm.
Actually, Sports Business Journal and Daily ran a package in October with ratings data giving demonstrable proof that later start times do indeed boost the numbers for most nationally televised sporting events.
mike and the mad dog should have you on once a week to analyze ratings data.
Dan: You are correct. Late start times don't hurt ratings. But they do hurt East Coast viewers with jobs.
Just put it at an earlier time.
Sorry if I actually work for a living and won't stay up until 11:30 to watch the end of an exhibition basketball game. No reason to start the game at 9 on a dead Sunday in February. Don't care what the numbers say.