Tuesday, June 17, 2003
NBA Playoff Ratings
This URL caught my eye:
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/finals_ratings_ap/
Cutting to the chase, the NBA Finals have lost two-thirds of their audience from five years ago. Granted that five years ago we were watching the likes of Air Jordan and Dennis Rodman, but for crying out loud, two out of every three people who watched the NBA Finals back then decided that they had something better to do this time around. Yes, ratings are down for everything because with the explosion of cable we have so many more choices, but two out of three?
You know that if this were true of the World Series the talking heads would be declaring the end of baseball as we know it (and probably blaming greedy players). But the NBA seems to get a free pass that baseball does not. For example, the Yankees put together a nice run in the late 90's and baseball is doomed because it has competitive balance problems. But what about the NBA? Did you know that this was the eighth year running that one of the three biggest media markets in the country was represented in the NBA Finals? That this marks 20 years out of 24 that we've seen a team from New York, LA or Chicago at the end? Seems to me that the large market teams in the NBA have some kind of competitive advantage (MORE DETAILS), but somehow it is baseball that has a problem.
Want to know what I was doing instead of watching the NBA Finals? I was watching the College World Series. Ping!
posted by David 7:52 PM
