On the heels of the most-watched NBA regular season in Turner Broadcasting’s 26 years of airing NBA basketball, TNT tipped off the 2009-10 season with its most-watched doubleheader since Feb. 2, 1996 with nearly 3.7 million total viewers. The previous record is held by a doubleheader featuring the Suns @ Cavaliers and Bulls @ Lakers. In addition, the doubleheader ranks as Turner’s most-watched opening night in its 26 years of airing NBA basketball. TNT, which has enjoyed back-to-back years of ratings increases for its regular season and NBA Playoffs, last night earned a 2.3 U.S. household rating for its exclusive doubleheader of the Boston Celtics @ Cleveland Cavaliers and L.A. Clippers @ L.A. Lakers.

In addition, TNT had double-digit growth over last year’s doubleheader of Cavaliers/Celtics and Trail Blazers/Lakers in total viewers, up +43% (3,676,000 vs. 2,579,000 in 2008) and households, up +40% (2,685,000 vs. 1,914,000). Key demos saw tremendous increases, including:

• A18-34:  +35%   1,299,000 vs.   961,000
• A18-49:  +35%  2,170,000 vs. 1,608,000
• A25-54:  +39%   1,905,000 vs. 1,374,000
• M18-34:  +38%   975,000  vs.   707,000
• M18-49:  +37%  1,562,000 vs. 1,143,000
• M25-54:  +40%   1,358,000 vs.   969,000

The Celtics/Cavaliers game delivered a 2.6 U.S. household rating, 4,021,000 total viewers and 2,977,000 households. The match-up earned a 20.0 rating in the Cleveland market and an 8.3 rating in the Boston market.

The Clippers/Lakers game delivered a 2.1 U.S. household rating, 3,358,000 total viewers and 2,415,000 households. The match-up earned a 6.2 rating in the Los Angeles market.

NBA.com, which is jointly managed by Turner Sports and the NBA, also saw tremendous online growth for NBA Opening Night, including:

• A 121% increase in total video streams.
  
• A 25% increase in total page views
• A 21% increase in unique users.

NBA on TNT Premiere Week presented by AutoTrader.com continues on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 8 p.m. (ET) with an exclusive doubleheader featuring the San Antonio Spurs visiting the Chicago Bulls.  The second game will feature the Portland Trail Blazers hosting the Denver Nuggets at 10:30 p.m. (ET). Inside the NBA presented by Hyundai will wrap up the night’s action following the doubleheader.

Source: TNT. Television data based on Nielsen Media Research, Live + Same Day data. NBA Regular Season Opening Night games only, 11/04/1994 through 10/27/09

NBA.com Source: Omniture

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Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network (select his name in the dropdown provided).

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