Jazz-Bulls are still on top of NBA finals TV ratings

Just in case you were wondering, the 1998 NBA finals -- featuringthe Chicago Bulls' triumph over your Utah Jazz -- remains thehighest-rated in television history.

The series averaged an 18.7 rating, which means that 18.7 percentof the TV-equipped homes in America were watching the games.

This year's NBA finals, featuring the San Antonio Spurs' sweep ofthe Cleveland Cavaliers, averaged a 6.2 rating. And that means that93.8 percent of the homes in America with TV were watching somethingelse (or not watching TV) when the games were being played.

Those are the worst ratings for any NBA finals. Ever.

A rating point represents more homes now than it did in 1998 --the population has increased -- but those are still startlingnumbers. Startlingly bad numbers.

And, given that overall ratings were down for the NBA this season-- both during the regular season and the playoffs -- you'd have tobet that the league would take a big hit when it came time to renewits national television contracts.

You'd lose.

ESPN/ABC and TNT have agreed to a new eight-year contract(beginning in 2008) that will pay the NBA $930 million per season.That's an increase of almost 22 percent over the $766 million perseason the two television entities have been paying under the termsof their current six-year deal.

Gee, NBA commissioner David Stern must be some kind of genius --he got a whole lot more out of a whole lot less.

If he's a genius, does that make the TV executives who agreed tothis deal somewhat less than brilliant? Or does it make themvisionaries?

The new deal isn't just for broadcast and cable television, it'sfor streaming Internet video and wireless communications as well.

The thought of trying to watch a basketball game on an iPhonedoesn't exactly appeal to me, but maybe it will to others.

It's a big gamble. A $7.44 billion gamble, as a matter of fact.

NOT SURPRISINGLY, local ratings for NBA basketball -- the Jazz onKJZZ-Ch. 14 -- bucked the national trend and were up this season.

Of course, that sort of thing tends to happen when your Utah Jazzare back in playoff contention once again after several years ofbeing less competitive.

ONE LAST WORD on the whole NBA playoffs on KJZZ thing that gotsome people so irate.

(And irrational, in some cases.)

Ch. 14 aired every Jazz playoff game it could. If a Jazz playoffgame wasn't on Ch. 14, it was because the local station wasprohibited from carrying it under the terms of those ABC/ESPN andTNT contracts.

It is, well, just stupid to think otherwise and accuse stationmanagement and ownership of deliberately withholding games. Ch. 14could have made a nice chunk of change by airing the games itdidn't.

Would you deliberately annoy your customers and take money offyour bottom line unless you had no choice?

'Nuff said.

E-mail: pierce@desnews.com