Everyone loves a winner.
The Golden State Warriors are off to a ridiculous 21-2 start and have now won 16 straight. Last Wednesday’s game vs. the Houston Rockets was the highest-rated Warriors game on Comcast SportsNet Bay Area since a March 24, 2008 contest vs. the Lakers.
Wednesday’s game averaged a 6.43 household rating (159,188 homes), 12% better than the 5.73 rating for the 2008 game. Wednesday’s game peaked with a 7.37 rating (182,472 homes) between 9:30-9:45. More good news for CSN Bay Area — the game ratings are boosting the post-game coverage ratings.
Through Wednesday’s game, Warriors ratings on CSN Bay Area were up 9% vs. last season to a 3.53. If that doesn’t sound like a whole lot, keep in mind the Warriors were pretty good last year, too.
The Washington Wizards, who have mostly been awful for decades are off to their best start in years. So unsurprisingly, the ratings are up more dramatically in the D.C. area on CSN Washington. In 20 games through December 8th, they were up 46% versus last year, and up 60% vs. 2012-13. The Wiz still have work to do when it comes to winning over the D.C. market. That 46% boost over last year only resulted in an average 1.3 household rating (1.3% of the homes in the market).
While they’ve lost 4 out of 6 December games so far, the Milwaukee Bucks had a winning November and are seeing their best ratings since the 2010-11 season. Through the season’s first 18 games (where they went 10-8) the Bucks averaged a 2.52 household rating on Fox Sports Wisconsin, up 270% versus the same period last year and a whopping 404% vs. last year’s full-season average.