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NBA Playoffs Help TNT Earn Best Week Ever In Total-Day Audience

The '11 NBA Playoffs on TNT last week helped the net earn its best week ever in total-day audience (24-hour basis) with an average of 1.7 million viewers. The network's first week of games averaged 4.3 million viewers (+39%) and also helped TNT see its best April ever. TNT also led all cable nets in primetime for the week with 3.5 million viewers, with the closest channel being USA Network with 2.8 million viewers. NBA TV has also averaged 466,000 viewers for its four NBA Playoff simulcasts through Monday. This year marks the first time the net has been Nielsen-rated for the playoffs, with each playoff broadcast airing up against a TNT game. Bulls-Pacers Game Three last Thursday has been NBA TV's most-viewed playoff game to date with 652,000 viewers. For comparison, Versus' non-exclusive coverage on the same night of the Bruins-Canadiens NHL Eastern Conference Quarterfinals averaged 599,000 viewers (Austin Karp, THE DAILY). CABLEFAX DAILY writes the "only thing that appears capable of halting the momentum of the NBA on TNT is the league itself," whose CBA expires June 30 (CABLEFAX DAILY, 4/27).

AND THE THUNDER ROLLED
: In Oklahoma City, Mel Bracht noted TNT earned an 11.0 local rating on Monday night for Game Four of the Thunder-Nuggets NBA Western Conference First Round series, marking the best rating in the market for the series to date. Ratings in Oklahoma City through four games are "up 2 percent from the first four games" of the Lakers-Thunder series last year (DAILY OKLAHOMAN, 4/26).

LIVING SOCIAL: ESPN.com's Maria Burns Ortiz wrote the NBA "has embraced social media in a way that perhaps no other sport has, making it an integral part of the league's day-to-day operations." At a time when the NBA is seeing record TV numbers, Ortiz noted it is no coincidence that the league has experienced "unprecedented growth among its social media platforms." The NBA "just surpassed 100 million combined followers and likes on Twitter and Facebook." Approximately "half of the NBA's players (220 and counting) are on Twitter, including almost all of the game's biggest stars." Ortiz noted that "from a daily social media strategy conference call to the final postgame tweet, these efforts seek to create what commissioner David Stern likes to refer to as a 'digital watercooler'" (ESPN.com, 4/25).

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

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