NBC's coverage of Sunday's NBA All-Star Game earned a 6.9/12 final Nielsen rating, down 35% from the 10.6/17 from the last NBA All-Star Game played in '98 (NBC). In Minneapolis, Steve Aschburner writes that the All-Star Game rating was the "lowest in history." The previous low was a 7.8 for both the '79 game on CBS and the '91 game on NBC (STAR TRIBUNE, 2/16). Mediacom's Jon Mandel, noting CBS' Buick Invitational Sunday coverage featuring Tiger Woods earned an 8.0/17 overnight rating: "Everybody was a fan of Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley. Now everybody's a fan of Tiger Woods. The NBA doesn't have the overall fan base that Jordan and Barkley attracted" (USA TODAY, 2/16). IN-VINCE-ABLE: TSN earned its highest-ever basketball rating in network history for its coverage of NBA All-Star festivities on Saturday. TSN averaged 610,000 viewers for the program, which included the Raptors' Vince Carter winning the Slam-Dunk competition (TSN). USA TODAY's Rudy Martzke reports that TNT's All-Star Saturday coverage earned a 3.9 cable rating, up 29% from '98 (USA TODAY, 2/16). OH, CANADA: In Toronto, William Houston reports that the NBA "has agreed to revise its broadcasting policy" in Canada, as sources say TSN and CTV SportsNet execs "have successfully lobbied the NBA to expand territorial distribution" of Raptors and Grizzlies games "outside a 75- mile club limit." The two Canadian franchises had argued that the 75-mile restriction "frustrated their attempts to market the game beyond" their respective home cities. With the new rules, Raptors local games "will be seen in all of Ontario," while Grizzlies games "will be aired throughout British Columbia." Houston also writes that Canadian TV execs "don't buy the argument that basketball is unfairly relegated to second place" in Canadian sportscasts. TSN VP/Programming Phil King: "The evidence shows that our highest rated Raptor game is about half of our lowest rated Leaf game. ... Basketball is just not as popular (as hockey). So what comes first, treating it like it's the bigger sport, or giving the viewers what they want?" Houston notes that CBC's "Hockey Night In Canada" averages about 1.3 million viewers in prime time on Saturday, while CTV's national NBA game on Sunday afternoon averages "only" 179,000 viewers. TSN's nationally covered Raptors games average 139,000 viewers (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 2/16).