TNT Hopes To Be A Comeback Story This Season; NBA Opening Night Ratings Up 46%

At last season’s close, NBA broadcasters sulked to the bus, heads down, defeated. Across Walt Disney Co DIS’s ABC and ESPN, NBA TV and Time Warner Inc TWX’s TNT, the league’s regular-season average viewership had fallen 6 percent year-over-year.

TNT, in particular, came in third with its lowest NBA ratings since 2007-2008.

But the broadcaster is ready for a comeback, and it looks like its hope is justified.

NBA Opening Night ratings for TNT were up 46 percent year-over-year with an average 3.5 household rating, the station’s Nate Smeltz told Benzinga.

“TNT won the night across all of cable in prime time with an average 4 rating,” Smeltz said.

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Compared to the 2016-2017 opening double-header, Tuesday’s Cavaliers-Celtics game posted a 4 rating with viewership up 82 percent while Houston-Golden State had a 3.1 rating with viewership up 24 percent.

Time Warner boasted another win last night with the TBS subsidiary’s Dodgers-Cubs game coming in as the highest rated program across all of cable, according to Smeltz.

Overall, Turner’s TV Everywhere Live Streaming coverage saw a 43-percent year-over-year increase in viewership with an average 8.9 minutes of consumption.

Sports Illustrated justified last year’s poor NBA performance by competing programming, particularly election coverage, as well as lackluster rivalries. Experts expect more excitement this year driven by offseason transactions.

Image credit: Keith Allison, Flickr