The NBA and NHL enjoy first round ratings success, Diamond Sports Group makes a late payment to the Reds and the CFP unveils its 12-team schedule for 2024.
Congratulations to Philadelphia 76ers center, Joel Embiid, who won the NBA's Most Valuable Player Award, finally claiming the prestigious trophy after finishing second to past two seasons. What seemed like a tight race throughout much of the year ended as a blowout with Embiid garnering 73 of the 100 available first-place votes. Nikola Jokic had 15 first-place votes while Giannis Antetokounmpo captured 12. Now the question is whether Embiid will play in tonight's game two of the Eastern Conference Semis in Boston. Good morning, it's Wednesday, May 3rd. This is your SBJ Morning Buzzcast. I'm David Albright filling in for Abe Madkour. Speaking of the NBA, the league saw its best first round playoff viewership in nine years, averaging 3.4 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and NBA TV. That's up 15% from just under three million viewers last year.
TNT, on its own, averaged 3.5 million viewers, which is its best figure in five years and up 6% from 2022. TNT won primetime across all of cable on nine of 10 nights during the first round. ABC and ESPN averaged 4.5 million viewers marking Disney's best first round on record up 18% from 2022. NBA TV had its best playoff viewership average since 2014 led by the series clenching Heat-Bucks game five, also, NBA TV's best playoff game since the Pacers-Hawks game six in 2014 which drew 1.1 million viewers. The first round closed out on Sunday with Warriors-Kings game seven and ABC's 9.8 million viewers for that game marked the best first round game since 1999. It was also ABC's best non-finals game on record.
The NHL had its second-best first round viewership on record fueled by the second straight first round with a record cable TV audience. The 50 games across ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, and TBS averaged 914,000 viewers, up 19% from 769,000 over 51 games during the first round last year, which was the first year of the new media rights package. There were three game sevens this year in the first round and five last year. This year also had two games on ABC in round one, whereas the entire first round was on cable TV last year. Local RSN numbers are not included in the averages for the cable nets. TNT and TBS averaged 959,000 viewers for its games in the first roundup, 18% from 2022. ESPN, ESPN2, and ABC averaged 881,000. That's up 22%.
The Panthers game seven went on Sunday night over the Bruins drew 3.1 million viewers on TNT, which is the best figure yet for an NHL first round game on cable TV. The Krakens game seven win over the Avalanche on Sunday night drew 2.02 million viewers, which is the best late window on record for the first round. And ESPN on Monday night drew the second-best game of the 2023 first round with Devils-Rangers game seven at 2.05 million. That's the third-best first round game ever on cable. So off to a great start for both the NBA and NHL in playoff ratings.
Diamond Sports Group made its rights fee payment to the Reds just days before MLB was prepared to take over the team's rights, sources told SBJ. Diamond, which owns Bally Sports Ohio, missed its payment to the team in mid-April, prompting a two-week cure period where Diamond could make a payment without penalty. MLB was ready to step in and begin producing Reds games on May 6th. Because many of the behind the scenes crew and trucks work for Bally Sports on a freelance basis, MLB was prepared to use many of the same staffers. The next team that faces the prospect of missing a rights fee payment from Diamond Sports is the Padres. Diamond Sports is scheduled to make its payment to the Padres on May 15th. Diamond was late on a previous payment to the Padres in the middle of March, but ended up paying the team just before its 15-day grace period ended.
Stifel, a St. Louis-based wealth management company will have its name appear on the sleeve of the Cardinals jerseys for the next seven years after announcing a partnership this week. The normally blue-lettered Stifel logo was switched to match the Cardinal red on the jerseys and the patch will also have different colored variants to match the color of the Cardinals' alternate cream jerseys that are typically worn on Saturdays at home and the victory blue jerseys used on road Saturday games. Stifel also has an advertisement deal with the Blues that includes the company's name on the sweaters. The patches made their debut last night when the Cardinals opened a three-game series against the Angels.
The college football playoff unveiled some key details about the 12-team format, beginning with the 2024 season, including the schedule and bowl game assignments for the first two installments of the expanded format. In 2024, those first round games will take place on Friday, December 20th and Saturday, December 21st with one game on Friday night and the other three taking place on Saturday, one in the early afternoon, one in the late afternoon, and the final one in the evening. The quarterfinals will be the Fiesta Bowl played at night on New Year's Eve, which is a Tuesday next year, and the Peach Bowl, Rose Bowl, and Sugar Bowl played on New Year's Day. The semifinals will be played at the Orange Bowl and Cotton Bowl on Thursday, January 9th, 2025, and Friday, January 10th. The college football playoff title game will then be held at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Monday, January 20th.
Coming off a record audience for the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament, will the upcoming WNBA season enjoy similar success? This past WNBA season was the most watched since 2006 and the league had its best post-season audience since 2007. With the 2023 season on the horizon, how can the league continue to build on that growth? Join our Austin Karp at 12:30 PM Eastern today for SBJ Live as he leads a panel of industry insiders in a discussion focused on the future of the WNBA for this season and beyond. Get more information and sign up for the free session at sportsbusinessjournal.com. That's your SBJ Morning Buzzcast for Wednesday. I hope everyone has a great day and we'll see you back here tomorrow morning.