NBA’s Game 7 scores big on local, national TV
Game 7 of the NBA Finals posted a 19.1 rating on Atlanta television Thursday night, higher than a strong national average, ABC said.
Nationally, the Miami Heat’s championship-clinching victory over the San Antonio Spurs delivered a 17.7 overnight rating — the second best for any NBA game since ABC acquired league broadcast rights a decade ago.
The rating is the percentage of TV households tuned in on average.
As expected, the game was Thursday night’s clear winner on Atlanta TV. The Braves-Mets game, which overlapped with the first half of the NBA game, posted a 4.1 local rating, down from 5.0 when the same teams met the night before.
Atlanta’s rating for the Heat-Spurs finale was the 18th highest among the nation’s 56 major markets that are included in Nielsen’s overnight measure.
The game posted a 46.4 local rating in San Antonio, 44.2 in Miami-Fort Lauderdale and 31.4 in West Palm Beach. The highest rating outside the states of the participating teams was Memphis’ 21.3.
The audience for the game in the Atlanta market averaged about 445,000 households.
Nationally, the only NBA game since the 2002-03 season to post a higher rating than Thursday’s was Game 7 of the 2010 Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Boston Celtics. That game garnered an 18.2 overnight rating.
About the Author
Tim Tucker, a long-time AJC sports reporter, often writes about the business side of the games. He also had stints as the AJC's Braves beat writer, UGA beat writer, sports notes columnist and executive sports editor. He was deputy managing editor of America's first all-sports newspaper, The National Sports Daily.
