NBA Continues To See Playoffs Ratings Increase On ABC, TNT

Lakers-Spurs Game Three Up 22.9% From '07

Lakers-Spurs Game Three of the NBA Western Conference Finals on TNT Sunday night earned a 4.3 coverage area Nielsen rating, up 22.9% from a 3.5 coverage rating for the comparable Pistons-Cavaliers Game Three of last year’s Eastern Conference Finals. On Saturday night, Celtics-Pistons Game Three on ABC earned a 3.7 final Nielsen rating, up 19.4% from a 3.1 for Game Three of the Spurs-Jazz Western Conference Finals last year (THE DAILY).

SHOWTIME: BROADCASTING & CABLE’s Ben Grossman reports ABC is “trotting out a series of ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ primetime specials leading into its coverage” of the NBA Finals, which begin June 5. The net will run a half-hour special for “at least each of the first four games.” The specials will run before each game at 8:00pm in the Eastern and Central time zones and after the game in the Mountain and Pacific time zones (BROADCASTINGCABLE.com, 5/28).

OFF AIR: REUTERS’ Nick Mulvenney reports NBA playoff games “have been taken off air by China's state television network [CCTV] because they are considered too entertaining for a nation still recovering from the Sichuan earthquake.” CCTV Dir Jiang Heping: "These games are not in accordance with the atmosphere of the nation after the devastation of the earthquake. They are too entertaining." Jiang said that he “hoped games would be back on air by the time” the NBA Finals begin (REUTERS, 5/28).