Final numbers for the first three games puts the Thunder-Heat series as ABC's most-watched NBA Finals, averaging 16.1 million viewers per game. The three-game 9.7 average rating is up 7% over last year's 9.1 and is up 5% in viewership compared to last year's three-game average. The 9.7 average rating is the highest since Pistons-Lakers in '04. Sunday night's Thunder-Heat Game Three recorded an 8.8 rating (NBA).
BORDER WARS: The HOLLYWOOD REPORTER's Michael O'Connell noted ABC "continues to batter the competition with its coverage of the NBA finals" (HOLLYWOODREPORTER.com, 6/18). In Atlanta, Tim Tucker noted the city "ranked No. 9 among the nation’s 56 major television markets in the Nielsen ratings for the first three games" of the NBA Finals. Of the eight markets that have posted "higher ratings than Atlanta for the Heat-Thunder series so far, four are in the territories of the participating teams: Oklahoma City (43.5 rating), Miami-Fort Lauderdale (30.2), Tulsa (26.6) and West Palm Beach (18.1)." The only other markets "topping Atlanta in the ratings are Cleveland (17.8), Memphis (15.6), New Orleans (14.0) and San Antonio (14.0)." Listed below are the 10 markets that have posted the highest Nielsen ratings through the first three games of the NBA Finals (ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, 6/19).
| MARKET |
RATING
|
MARKET |
RATING
|
| Oklahoma City |
43.5
|
Memphis |
15.6
|
| Miami-Ft. Lauderdale |
30.2
|
New Orleans |
14
|
| Tulsa |
26.6
|
San Antonio |
14
|
| West Palm Beach |
18.1
|
Atlanta |
13.6
|
| Cleveland |
17.8
|
Chicago |
13.5
|
Note: The rating is the percentage of the market's TV households tuned in on average.
INTERNATIONAL SENSATION: Announcer Kaan Kural, who is part of more than a dozen foreign broadcast teams, said that fans in Turkey "set their alarms to get up at 3 or 4 a.m. to watch the games live." Kural said that Turkish interest "skyrocketed after [Magic F] Hedo Turkoglu began playing in the NBA." Kural: "It's probably the most watched event after soccer events." In Ft. Lauderdale, Craig Davis notes the video footage that is "seen throughout the world comes from the basic feed produced by ABC." That is "processed for international distribution in a truck crammed with monitors outside the arena by NBA Entertainment." The most "sophisticated and interactive foreign coverage is provided by China's CCTV, which gives fans a chance to vote up to three times per game on its website CNTV.cn as to which player they want the 'Star Cam' isolation camera to focus on." India's Ten Sports is "broadcasting onsite and also chronicling the experiences of two fans who won trips to the Finals through the 'NBA's Biggest Fan' trivia program" (South Florida SUN-SENTINEL, 6/19). Meanwhile, the NBA announced that the Philippines topped the list of countries following the league on Facebook and Twitter outside the U.S. and China. The top five countries following the NBA on each website are below (NBA).
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TOP FIVE ON FACEBOOK
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TOP FIVE ON TWITTER
|
|
Philippines
|
Philippines
|
|
Turkey
|
Indonesia
|
|
Indonesia
|
Brazil
|
|
Mexico
|
U.K.
|
|
France
|
India
|
SOCIAL MEDIA DARLING: ESPN.com's Jaren Zwerling noted the NBA named Knicks G Jeremy Lin its "first-ever 'Social Breakout Player of the Year,' based on his increase in popularity with fans on Twitter and Facebook this past season." During roughly the "first week of Linsanity, from Feb. 4 to 9," Lin had "more Twitter mentions" than Heat F LeBron James and Clippers F Blake Griffin. He also had a 20,000 to 30,000 "daily follower increase on Twitter," and went from 190,000 fans to 250,000 "on Sina, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter" (
ESPN.com, 6/18).
PILOT PROGRAM: In Oklahoma City, Lillie-Beth Brinkman notes a new pilot program between the Army Reserve’s Employee Partnership Office and the NBA "debuted in Oklahoma City for the Finals and continued in Miami, Fla., with reservists there this week." The Army Reserve’s employment office "helps armed forces personnel who are finishing their military commitments find work, and the NBA needed technical help for the Finals." NBA VP/Operations & Engineering Mike Ricosa said that the skills the reservists developed in the military "made a perfect fit for the skills the video production team needed in the arena" (OKLAHOMAN, 6/19).
SCORING TICKETS: In Miami, Adam Beasley writes under the header, "Tickets To NBA Finals Can Be Found ... Even Below Face Value," and describes his search for tickets on the secondary market. Beasley writes after walking around downtown Miami before Game Three, he "finally broke down and did what I should have all along: I pulled up the StubHub mobile app on my iPhone." Beasley: "I had monitored prices on the second-hand ticket website throughout the day, and they had steadily fallen because of a glut. At 10 a.m., the cheapest get-in was $160 (before fees), but that had dipped to as low as $75 by around 6 p.m. Problem was, I only wanted one seat, and finding one wasn’t easy. ... Finally, at 7:23 p.m. I found what I thought was the perfect opportunity: $120 (plus a hefty $27 in fees) for Section 417, Row 13, Seat 4. I pulled the trigger, and bought the ticket. ... I got in the door for $147, a savings of nearly $80" (MIAMI HERALD, 6/19).
TALKING POINTS: Last night’s ESPN’s “Around The Horn” discussed in the show’s “Buy or Sell” segment the recent interviews of NBA Commissioner David Stern with ESPN’s Michael Wilbon on Monday night and CBS Sports Network’s Jim Rome last Wednesday afternoon. ESPN’s Tony Reali noted of the interviews, “Two different responses to questions about the NBA Lottery. The response to Rome making the most headlines, I think you can say. ‘Buy or sell’ Stern in the last week?” Denver Post columnist Woody Paige said, “I sell -- The way he handled both interviews in regard to the one yesterday (with Wilbon) the fact that he was referring to the Lottery as ‘delicious’ and ‘delightful’ in regard to the response people had, and the fact that he went on Jim Rome and responded to the question by saying, ‘When did you stop beating his wife?’ That’s an old world reference I don’t think a lot of people get and he should be above the fray and not be using language like that.” Dallas Morning News columnist Tim Cowlishaw: “I’m fine with it. I thought he gave sarcastic answers to a sarcastic line of questioning that started with Jim Rome asking if the Lottery was fixed. How are you supposed to take those kind of questions seriously and then he gave much better answers to better questions from Michael Wilbon.” ESPN’s Michael Smith was “buying” Stern’s behavior in these two interviews because “both questions were asked very differently and therefore elicited very different responses” (“Around The Horn,” ESPN, 6/18).
