In those first few years, the deal appeared to be a disaster. Ratings, which had been declining since David Stern and the owners locked out the players in 1998, fell off a cliff. The first season on ABC included the lowest rated regular season ever on broadcast (2.6), and worse, the lowest rated NBA Finals ever (6.5). Regular season ratings dropped again the next season (2.4) and kept declining until hitting a record low 2.0 in 2006-07. During the first seven years of the NBA’s partnership with ESPN/ABC, the NBA Finals averaged a single-digit rating six times, bottoming out at a 6.2 in 2007. By comparison, NBC never dipped below a 10.0 average in twelve-years covering the league.
As time went on, however, the NBA and Stern were vindicated. Though the NBA was alone in the wilderness when jumping to cable in 2002, several other sports made the move in subsequent years. Starting in the 2006-07 season, Monday Night Football moved from longtime home ABC to corporate sibling ESPN. Also in 2007, the entire Major League Baseball Division Series and one League Championship Series moved to TBS. In 2011, ESPN began airing the entire Bowl Championship Series. Four years from now, TBS will begin televising the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament Final Four in every other year.
In 2002, the NBA appeared to be moving backwards, accepting its status as a niche league waning in popularity. In 2012, the NBA looks like a visionary, reading the writing on the wall for broadcast television and firmly establishing itself on cable before any of its competitors.