Menu
Download the app

SBJ subscribers – Enhance your experience with the revamped iOS app

Media

Warriors stay atop local television ratings

The Golden State Warriors posted the NBA’s highest local TV ratings for a third consecutive season, pacing a league that rebounded from a double-digit local ratings decline last season.

 

Warriors games on NBC Sports Bay Area averaged an 8.36 rating, a figure that is down 4 percent from last season. Cleveland Cavaliers games on FS Ohio placed second with a 7.98 rating (up 8 percent), followed by Oklahoma City Thunder games on FS Oklahoma with a 7.05 rating (up 7 percent).

Golden State averaged an 8.36 rating this season on NBC Sports Bay Area.nbae / getty images

Overall, the NBA’s local television ratings rose 3 percent during the 2017-18 season, reversing last season’s 14 percent local ratings slide.

The jump mirrors the NBA’s national TV partners that saw viewership rise 8 percent to a combined average of 1.28 million viewers, the best since the 2013-14 season. Viewership on ABC was up 17 percent from last year, with TNT up 13 percent, ESPN up 4 percent and NBA TV up 1 percent.

SportsBusiness Journal analyzed ratings data for 28 teams across the NBA. Information for Memphis and Utah was not available. Of the 28 teams, 10 were down, 17 were up and one was flat.

The NBA’s best ratings story is in Minnesota where the Timberwolves, making their first playoff appearance since 2004, saw their ratings on FS North jump 76 percent, the league’s highest jump. The Boston Celtics, bolstered by its trade for All-Star Kyrie Irving, saw a 44 percent ratings increase.

Milwaukee Bucks games on FS Wisconsin and Wizards games on NBC Sports Washington posted their highest TV ratings in more than 12 years.

The 28-54 Brooklyn Nets had the lowest local rating for the fourth consecutive season with a 0.38 rating on the YES Network.

The Atlanta Hawks, with the Eastern Conference-worst record of 24-58, saw the biggest percentage ratings drop of 53 percent, the team’s lowest mark since the 2006-07 season.

Research director David Broughton and SportsBusiness Daily assistant managing editor Austin Karp contributed to this report.

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.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2018/04/23/Media/NBA-ratings.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Journal/Issues/2018/04/23/Media/NBA-ratings.aspx

CLOSE