The closing night of the NBA regular season last night saw several TV records set by CSN Bay Area and ESPN. The Warriors' NBA-record 73rd win drew a 23.22 local rating on CSNBA in the S.F.-Oakland-San Jose market, setting a record for any NBA regular-season game on any RSN. The 23.22 also is a record for any telecast on CSNBA, passing the 18.47 rating for Spurs-Warriors on Sunday night. The RSN’s top three telecasts are now Warriors games from the ’15-16 regular season. The 23.22 also was higher than any local rating earned by the Bulls in the Chicago market during the ’95-96 season, when the club set the previous record of 72 wins. However, RSNs have seen higher figures in other sports. A regular season game between the Mariners and Angels on September 23, 1997, drew a 25.3 local rating on FSN Northwest (now Root Sports Northwest) in the Seattle-Tacoma market. In terms of viewership, YES Network also may end up with a higher figure for the final game of former Yankees SS Derek Jeter’s career on September 25, 2014 (1.25 million viewers).
TWICE AS NICE: While an RSN carried Grizzlies-Warriors last night in the Bay Area, the game was carried in other markets by ESPN (blacked out in Bay Area). The cable net drew a 2.7 overnight for the matchup, marking ESPN’s highest-rated non-Christmas Day NBA regular-season game since ’14. In the Memphis market, ESPN carried the game alongside FS Tennessee. Meanwhile, ESPN2 last night drew a 2.6 overnight rating for the final game of Lakers G Kobe Bryant’s career, marking the net’s best figure on record for an NBA regular-season game. ESPN2 drew a 6.5 local rating in L.A. for the game, which is the highest figure on record in the market for an NBA regular-season game on either ESPN or ESPN2. Both the Grizzlies-Warriors and Jazz-Lakers games set NBA regular-season records on WatchESPN for average minute audience.
ALL EYES ON ME: NBA TV had its most-viewed regular season during the '15-16 campaign, averaging 345,000 viewers for live game coverage. Those games were blacked out in the local markets of participating teams. The 345,000 average viewers is up 19% from last season. NBA TV also saw a record for primetime audience during the regular season, averaging 176,000 viewers. Total-day figures also set a new high. Meanwhile, the NBA League Pass out-of-market package, NBA.com, the NBA app and NBA social media accounts all saw record growth.
