NBA Finals TV Ratings, 1974-2008

[duncan228]

Sorry for the formatting on the columns. :)

NBA Finals TV Ratings, 1974-2008 (http://tvbythenumbers.com/2009/05/22/nba-finals-tv-ratings-1974-2008/19324)
by Bill Gorman

http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x282/duncan228/temp/finalsgraph.gif

Quick, guess which year was Michael Jordan’s last in the NBA Finals?

Marketed far more on the power of individual stars than any other US team sport, NBA basketball suffers the most when it lacks those charismatic stars in postseason play.

1987-1989 were the end of the Magic Johnson/Larry Bird era. 1990 saw an interim year and a ratings low. 1991 began the Michael Jordan championship era, with the Chicago Bulls winning championships in 1991, 1992 and 1993. During Jordan’s minor league baseball excursion years of 1994 & 1995, the Hakeem Olajuwon lead Houston Rockets didn’t have nearly the star power and ratings crashed again.

Tired of being a mediocre baseball player, Jordan’s return brought NBA postseason ratings up again for 1996, 1997 and 1998. His final year being the best finals ratings of his career (and the highest HH ratings we have in our data going back to 1974). Another interim year after Jordan’s exit and ratings plunged again. One might have thought that the Kobe/Shaq lead LA Lakers might have raised ratings back to Jordanesqe levels, but they merely halted the decline near the 1990 & 1994 lows from 2000-2002.

NBA Finals TV Ratings, 1974-2008

Year Net Games HH Rating HH Share Avg. HHs (million) Avg. Viewers (million) Teams

2008 ABC 6 9.3 17 10.530 14.941 Boston/Lakers
2007 ABC 4 6.2 11 6.912 9.289 San Antonio/Cleveland
2006 ABC 6 8.5 15 9.332 12.972 Miami/Dallas
2005 ABC 7 8.2 15 8.951 12.544 San Antonio/Detroit
2004 ABC 5 11.5 20 12.451 17.942 Detroit/Lakers
2003 ABC 6 6.5 12 6.955 9.864 San Antonio/New Jersey
2002 NBC 4 10.2 19 10.752 15.678 Lakers/New Jersey
2001 NBC 5 12.1 23 12.390 18.996 Lakers/Philadelphia
2000 NBC 6 11.6 21 11.677 17.402 Lakers/Indiana
1999 NBC 5 11.3 21 11.205 16.014 San Antonio/New York
1998 NBC 6 18.7 33 18.336 29.040 Chicago/Utah
1997 NBC 6 16.8 30 16.291 25.586 Chicago/Utah
1996 NBC 6 16.7 31 16.019 24.858 Chicago/Seattle
1995 NBC 4 13.9 25 13.284 20.078 Houston/Orlando
1994 NBC 5 12.0 23 11.291 17.253 Houston/New York
1993 NBC 6 17.9 33 16.694 27.209 Chicago/Phoenix
1992 NBC 6 14.2 27 13.097 20.838 Chicago/Portland
1991 NBC 5 15.8 32 14.750 23.910 Chicago/Lakers
1990 CBS 5 12.3 25 11.320 17.190 Detroit/Portland
1989 CBS 4 15.1 30 13.620 21.260 Detroit/Lakers
1988 CBS 7 15.4 31 13.620 21.700 Lakers/Detroit
1987 CBS 6 16.7 35 14.600 24.120 Lakers/Boston
1986 CBS 6 14.1 31 14.430 Boston/ Houston
1985 CBS 6 13.5 30 Lakers/Boston
1984 CBS 7 12.1 26 Boston/Lakers
1983 CBS 4 12.3 26 Philadelphia/Lakers
1982 CBS 6 13.0 28 Lakers/Philadelphia
1981 CBS 6 6.7 27 Boston/Houston
1980 CBS 6 8.0 29 Lakers/Philadelphia
1979 CBS 5 7.2 24 Seattle/Washington
1978 CBS 7 9.9 25 Washington/Seattle
1977 CBS 6 12.7 33 Portland/Philadelphia
1976 CBS 6 11.5 29 Boston/Phoenix
1975 CBS 4 10.1 28 6.920 11.380 Golden State/Washington
1974 CBS 7 13.5 32 Boston/Milwaukee


Without the Lakers in the finals in 2003, the NBA the San Antonio Spurs/New Jersey Nets finals produced a ratings catastrophe. The return of the Lakers in 2004 brought the finals back to their previous early century ratings. The following two years seemed to establish a new baseline just under 13 million average viewers, a level that would have been considered terrible just 5 years earlier, but probably had David Stern breathing a sigh of relief. That didn’t last long when the NBA’s newest name star, LeBron James, and his otherwise overmatched Cleveland Cavaliers were swept away by the boringly successful San Antonio Spurs taking NBA finals ratings with them to their lowest level in the years for which we have data (1974-).

What does this year’s NBA finals ratings picture look like?

This year’s ideal ratings matchup would be the Kobe Bryant lead Lakers vs. the LeBron James lead Cavaliers. An Orlando/Denver series wouldn’t do nearly as well. Perhaps more important than the matchup though is the number of games the finals series lasts. A 4 game series among the weak ratings matchup certainly would set an all time low, but even among the marquis matchup wouldn’t come close to last years ratings levels.

2006-8 data is Live+SD, all previous years are Live viewing.

Nielsen TV Ratings Data

[lefty]

On a side note, David Stern became the NBA commissioner during the 1983-1984 season

[redzero]

The Spurs' efforts to kill the NBA with their teamwork and fundamental basketball, were unsuccessful.

[Darthkiller]

had the suns made into the final, the results would been a lot different. teams intead of following the spurs structure of defense, would follow suns structure of SSOL. people tune in to see people score.

[TampaDude]

The Spurs' efforts to kill the NBA with their teamwork and fundamental basketball, were unsuccessful.

Well, they succeeded four times so far... :lol

[Man In Black]

Again...

This is ONLY FOR THE US.

The ratings numbers for just the US is no longer the big dog for Stern, he's looking at it as a global game.

I agree that his method of stars over teams is the root cause for casual fan in the US to not watch this sport like they do football, that's his bad.

But a real athlete only competes for championships, the the TV ratings title is not his to control nor does he care about it.

[jacobdrj]

It has less to do with Jordan leaving and WAY WAY more to do with the fact that there was a season-shortening lockout that disenfranchised fans. Sure, the season happened, but yes, without the Bulls, there wasn't a compelling storyline to go with continuity.

[BRHornet45]

sons and people wonder why over the last decade or so the NBA has been heading in the direction of "sports entertainment" and fixing games in the playoffs.

[FromWayDowntown]

So in essence the, the Spurs are the most unwatchable team in basketball history. lol

The most unwatchable championship team in basketball history. I suspect that something like a Milwaukee/Utah Finals (hah, as if that would ever be allowed!) would make 2007 seem like a ratings bonanza.

With that said, I wonder what the ratings were for the 2001 WCF (Spurs/Lakers), 2002 WCF (Lakers/Kings), 2003 WCSF (Spurs/Lakers), 2004 WCSF (Spurs/Lakers), and for the 2007 WCSF (Spurs/Suns), which were largely considered the de facto Finals in those seasons (though the 2007 WCSF is viewed that way mostly in hindsight, I think).

My hunch is that those series had higher ratings than the Finals because people expected more compelling basketball and watched; the 2001 and 2002 Finals were mismatches, the 2003 Finals were largely expected to be a mismatch, and the 2004 WCSF pitted the teams that had won the last 5 titles

[spursncowboys]

So not as many people watched The Spurs win four championships as they watched LA lose two?
Also where are the stats for Spurs vs. Min,LA,NO,Den,Dal,or Pho?
This is nonsense because since Jordan left Chicago for good, the Eastern has been Leastern. Only recently has the East even had good teams (beating LA in the finals is a gimme)

[poop]

how convenient that the year after the lowest ratings ('07), the Lakers/Celtics matchup 'happened' to be reborn, with both teams coming from mediocrity the previous years to powerhouses literally overnight.

how convenient!
surely the Gasol trade, and the celtics having the biggest turnaround in sports history in a single year both occured entirely on their own by chance.

[BRHornet45]

how convenient that the year after the lowest ratings ('07), the Lakers/Celtics matchup 'happened' to be reborn, with both teams coming from mediocrity the previous years to powerhouses literally overnight.

how convenient!
surely the Gasol trade, and the celtics having the biggest turnaround in sports history in a single year both occured entirely on their own by chance.

co-signed ... its all about the almighty $$$$ and the NBA pushed for that finals match up from day 1 of the 07-08 season. hell they even had the two teams on the cover of SI as a "finals preview" like 3 months before the playoffs.

[IronMexican]

This fixed stuff always makes me laugh. I am sure that's why in 2005 the NBA preferred to have Detroit and SA in the finals, as opposed to Phoenix and Miami. Or why the Spurs won the lottery in 97(I think it was 97, not 100% sure). 2000-2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2009 were all fixed.

[BRHornet45]

This fixed stuff always makes me laugh. I am sure that's why in 2005 the NBA preferred to have Detroit and SA in the finals, as opposed to Phoenix and Miami. Or why the Spurs won the lottery in 97(I think it was 97, not 100% sure). 2000-2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, and 2009 were all fixed.

son of course most of that talk is joking and exaggeration .... but at the same time some of it is legit. whenever the NBA is in a position like they were last year with L.A. and BOS ... you honestly don't think that they helped make that happen? now I'm not saying that they clearly fix the games or anything like that .... but whenever both L.A. and BOS made their conference finals, you know damn well the NBA pushed for them to win. a bogus call here, a bogus call there, some extra free throws here, etc....

again, I don't believe (and hope not) that the NBA would 100% fix a game ... but whenever they are put into a position to where they could receive better ratings (AKA more money) I believe they will do anything in their power to help it happen.

[IronMexican]

son of course most of that talk is joking and exaggeration .... but at the same time some of it is legit. whenever the NBA is in a position like they were last year with L.A. and BOS ... you honestly don't think that they helped make that happen? now I'm not saying that they clearly fix the games or anything like that .... but whenever both L.A. and BOS made their conference finals, you know damn well the NBA pushed for them to win. a bogus call here, a bogus call there, some extra free throws here, etc....

again, I don't believe (and hope not) that the NBA would 100% fix a game ... but whenever they are put into a position to where they could receive better ratings (AKA more money) I believe they will do anything in their power to help it happen.

How many bogus calls went in each series? Game 4 in San Antonio should have been a 2 shot foul, I can admit that. But just the play before, Kobe's shot his rim and they called it an air-ball. The refs missed back to back calls.

The Boston, Detroit Series? Boston went out there and won it.

[poop]

its not ALWAYS controlled iron mexican, in fact the vast majority of the time it is not, but there are certainly points in which the league deems it necessary to 'change course' a bit.

for example in '06 a spurs-detroit rematch was inevitable, so the league needed to get involved;what transpired was the biggest travesty playoffs in recent memory with 2 teams coming out of nowhere to make the finals (then reverting back to 2nd-tier status or less), having won games entirely at the line where almost every nba fan admits the refing was absurd.

and the scenario in '07 leading to the scenario that 'just so happened' to play out in '08 is so clearly obviously helped along that no one in their right mind can call it a coincidence.

[BRHornet45]

How many bogus calls went in each series? Game 4 in San Antonio should have been a 2 shot foul, I can admit that. But just the play before, Kobe's shot his rim and they called it an air-ball. The refs missed back to back calls.

The Boston, Detroit Series? Boston went out there and won it.

Boston should have never gotten to the conference finals to begin with. Atlanta got screwed over and over in the first round with chickenshit calls and so did the Cavs.

[IronMexican]

That's why LeBron shot 2-18 in game 1 and 6-24 in game 1 and 2 of the series? The better teams won.

[BRHornet45]

That's why LeBron shot 2-18 in game 1 and 6-24 in game 1 and 2 of the series? The better teams won.

son you will never understand it because you are a fan of one of the biggest bandwagon teams in professional sports. its easy for you to look past these arguments whenever your team constantly receives favoritism from the league and the media.

[IronMexican]

Do you believe in favoritism in every league, or just the NBA? I believe in Super Star favoritism.

[JoeTait75]

Boston should have never gotten to the conference finals to begin with. Atlanta got screwed over and over in the first round with chickenshit calls and so did the Cavs.

Cavaliers lost to Boston fair and square last year.

[BRHornet45]

Do you believe in favoritism in every league, or just the NBA? I believe in Super Star favoritism.

I believe that media hype results in favoritism in every league for the popular/trendy teams and super star players. The NBA however is the easiest to detect the favoritism.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

its not ALWAYS controlled iron mexican


Yup, whenever the Spurs win, it's not controlled. When they lose, it's cause the NBA did what it could to prevent the Spurs' inevitable dominance :rolleyes

[IronMexican]

It's only fixed when you see the Lakers in the Finals. It's never fixed when you hear Suns fans refer to the Spurs as the San Antonio Sterns.

[DUNCANownsKOBE2]

It's only fixed when you see the Lakers in the Finals. It's never fixed when you hear Suns fans refer to the Spurs as the San Antonio Sterns.

Right, Joey Crawford rigged it against the Spurs in 2008, biggest injustice ever. Tim Donaghy called game three against the Suns perfectly and def. wasn't taking orders from a bookie. I'm sure that's why he's in jail right now.

[Ghazi]

No wonder nobody believes me when I say the Mavs are the true 2006 champs. Nobody WATCHED the damn thing.

[pauls931]

Probably more to do with more entertainment options thanks to the internets...

[iggypop123]

i guess we can blame the spurs for tanking the economy and the nugggets and magic if they advance for ruining the business side of the nba.

[poop]

Yup, whenever the Spurs win, it's not controlled. When they lose, it's cause the NBA did what it could to prevent the Spurs' inevitable dominance :rolleyes

no stupid ass, the spurs lost fair and square in '04, '08 and '09. but '06 was clearly a screwjob. maybe you should read my entire posts on this subject before running your shit-smeared mouth

[Many PackYao]

:wow Wow! I expected the Houston numbers to be lower. Not too shabby.