From Friday's Chron David Barron - One of the three NBA teams in Texas recorded record regular-season ratings this year on Fox Sports Net, and a second team had the highest average rating for the 22 NBA teams that show games on FSN. You wanna guess on the slacker? Never mind. Too obvious. The Mavericks averaged a record 3.1 in Dallas-Fort Worth, up 63 percent from a year ago and up 29 percent from the old record of 2.4 in 1994-95. The Spurs averaged 5.6 in San Antonio, the best rating of any NBA team on FSN, and had a season-best 11.6 Nielsen for Game 2 of the Sonics series Monday. As for your Rockets, they averaged an abysmal 2.0 rating on FSN and 4.3 on KTXH (Channel 20) this season. To be fair, they've challenged the Spurs' top-rated rating in their best years, and they've pretty much wiped the floor with the Mavs' 3.1 record in most seasons. But this is not most seasons. Even worse, the Rockets must embark on talks for new television and radio contracts in which they won't exactly be negotiating from a position of strength. FSN spokesman Ramon Alvarez said the parties are in discussions on a number of issues, including the over-the-air carrier for next season.
10:1 that the Rockets OTA-TV stays with Channel 20. 1:100 that the Rockets radio stays with KPRC 950. The TV deal (even with the reduced ratings) has been beneficial for both parties. Since it looks like UPN will not be growing its programming much (if at all), the oddball FSN during the week, 20 late-night and weekends works well enough. Conversely, the radio deal has hurt the team. Since the merger, the coach's radio show has become almost impossible to find - a standalone nightmare with no regular host, and the post-game talk show dissolved altogether. With KTRH devoted to the Astros (*and* being owned by the same corporate parent), I expect KILT to make the strongest play. The preseason games could return to the flagship, and the only conflict is Sunday day games with the Texans (I assume the Aeros/UT bball deals could either be bought out, left to expire, or shifted to 650).
Good stuff. There could be a third possibility - 790 KBME. KTRH and KPRC own it and word is it is going all sports at some point. They have enough signal strength too. Personally, I'd like to see KILT get it. I mean, Charlie and Rich doing pregame with Gene, Jim and Jeff. Plus, Rich and Charlie make great post game guys and they will have Matt Jackson around as well if necessary.
I think the Neilson ratings will go way up next year. It's easy to understand why the Rock's ratings are so low. The people that tune in to the Mavs get run, run, run, push,push,push, and we get to see our guard pound the ball. More ball movement next year = more wins = more viewers.
And then we could listen to Rich and Matt squirm when they have to do promos and pregame shows for the Comets, which they both have made fun of and have shown their hatred for over the years. os
Personally, I wouldn't mind seeing that at all. Charlie actually follows the Comets and Rockets closely. He is underrated in his opinion on both.
I'd argue that getting people to tune in is about 90 percent winning (no matter what the system or players are) and 10 percent marketing. The Rockets played some ugly-ass basketball when they won their first championship. The back-to-the basket stuff they continued with through the Barkley teams wasn't exactly Showtime. Yet, they sold out Compaq Center and packed the TV ratings because they won. That's most of it. No matter how you play, if you win, it looks beautiful.
