TURNER NETWORKS TAKING A RATINGS HIT AS LOCKOUT CONTINUES

          The NBA lockout "has begun to clobber" TNT and TBS in
     the Nielsen ratings, according to John Dempsey of DAILY
     VARIETY.  For the time slots where the first six canceled
     games would have appeared, the networks have averaged "only"
     a 1.4 cable rating, or about 1,049,000 households.  Last
     year, the first six NBA telecasts on the Turner networks
     averaged a 1.8 cable rating, or 1,316,000 HHs.  So, Dempsey
     notes, the "falloff" is 22% in ratings and 20% in HHs.  But
     the nets are "getting whacked" in the male 18-49 demo, where
     the numbers are down from 668,000 for last year's NBA games
     to 452,000 for this year's movies -- a 32% decline.  A
     Turner spokesperson "denied the two networks are losing a
     reported average of $500,000 a game" (DAILY VARIETY, 11/20).