The NBA All-Star Game on Sunday drew an average of 5.5 million viewers, up 14% from last year, according to the NBA.

The league said a total of 11.6 million viewers tuned into the game on TNT, TBS, truTV and B/R Sports on Max, up 20%.

The game capped an All-Star Weekend that also included celebrity games, three point shooting competitions and a slam-dunk content.

Warner Bros. Discovery said it had sold virtually all of the commercial inventory for the weekend and was anticipating record revenue.

Commercial inventory for TNT Sports’ coverage of the NBA’s All-Star Weekend is virtually sold out, adding momentum after Sunday’s record-setting Super Bowl.

Advertisers who spent big to create Super Bowl campaigns are using All-Star Weekend as a high-profile opportunity to extend those efforts, Jon Diament, executive VP, ad sales at TNT Sports parent Warner Bros. Discovery, told Broadcasting+Cable.

“On the heels of a record-breaking Super Bowl, we think that this should be a record-breaking All-Star weekend,” Diament said.

Despite a 27% drop in viewership for last season to 4.59 million, NBA sales were up during the upfront and the scatter market for sports has been healthy, he said. “That all adds up to being sold out completely for Saturday and virtually sold out for Sunday.”

Prices for ads are up, but the increases didn’t reach the double digit range.

Advertisers in the soda, beer, auto, insurance and entertainment categories are the top spenders in the year’s All Stars, and betting continues as a healthy category.

“Live sports continue to be highly sought after by sponsor and we’re sold out. These advertisers don’t want to run a commercial. They want to activate throughout the whole weekend, whether it’s through events, or social media or creative opportunities like on-court signage or being affiliated with athletes to take advantage of these cultural moments.’

Over the weekend, TNT Sports will air All-Star events on TNT, alternate telecasts on truTV, and digital and streaming content on Bleacher Report and B/R Sports on Max.

On Friday trading card company Panini sponsors the Rising Stars game. A post game show will be presented by Kia.

State Farm presents All-Star Saturday Night, with AT&T sponsoring the Slam Dunk Challenge, Kia presenting the All Star Skills Challenge and Starry owning the 3-point challenge.

AT&T will also be sponsoring the Shaq cam, which will capture the reactions of Inside the NBA’s Shaquille O’Neal during the dunk contest.

The dunk content will also have a live stream on the B/R app and YouTube page. A camera will follow O’Neal as he moves around the court in between dunks.

State Farm will sponsor a live taping in Indianapolis of Taylor Rooks X with guest Tyrese Haliburton of the Pacers.

State Farm also sponsors a Roadshow Obstacle course that uses the insurance company’s jingle as the timer for events that include dribbling, passing and shooting.

Retailer JD Sports is sponsoring posts on B/R Kicks and House of Highlights showing player fashion as they arrive for All Star Weekend.

American Express will sponsor The All-Star Game Show Presented By American Express, a Family Feud-style trivia program that will see if NBA players know what fans think.

On Saturday, WBD’s truTV will air an alternate telecast sponsored by NIke’s Jordan Brand that will feature Jason Tatum and Carmelo Anthony.

During the All-Star Game itself on Sunday, truTV and B/R on Max will have another alternate telecast presented by Jordan Brand. It will be hosted by Taylor Rooks with Draymond Green and Charles Barkley. Jamal Crawford will also contribute as a sideline reporter.

The main telecast of the game is presented by Kia. The game will be preceded by a two-hour NBA All-Star Tip-Off presented by CarMax on TNT, TBS, truTV and B/R Sports on Max, featuring the Inside the NBA studio team of Ernie Johnson, Barkley, O’Neal, and Kenny Smith.

The slump in the advertising market didn’t stop Warner Bros. Discovery from selling out its inventory across the NBA’s All-Star Weekend.

“We’re sold out,” Jon Diament, executive VP for ad sales at WBD, said. “This is the best year we’ve ever had.”

Diament said that in addition to official league sponsors–big names long associated with the NBA like Kia, State Farm and AT&T, this year’s All-Star weekend has 20 new advertisers in the lineup.

Those advertisers are in categories including beer, tech, auto, movies, telcos and snack.

“All those big blue-chip type advertisers for sports are back in a pretty big way,” Diament said.

Last year, the NBA’s All-Star Weekend generated $27.3 million in ad revenue, according to Kantar. The All-Star Game itself garnered $9.3 million, with 30-second spots going for $65,847. The pregame All-Star Tip-Off Show brought in another $5.4 million.

One advertiser stepping up big time this year is Nike’s Jordan Brand. That’s Jordan as in Michael Jordan, who played in a couple of All-Star games during his career as the GOAT of the NBA.

Jordan Brand will be the presenting sponsor of the pre-All Star Game draft during which team captains LeBron James and Giannis Antetokounmpo select their squads. The first 30 minutes of the TNT telecast will also be streamed live on the Bleacher Report app.

Jordan Brand is also sponsoring the Rising Stars game on Friday and Cartoon Network Special Edition: NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest on Sunday.

Diament said WBD encourages advertisers to sponsor events across the weekend and across platforms. WBD is selling NBA All-Star inventory on cable, digital and streaming platforms, plus live events in Utah, where the game is being held. Many of those live, in-person events get televised, he added.

“We are having a lot of fan activations. It’s a very sophisticated plan that we put together with many of our sponsors,” Diament said.

In one activation, Shaquille O’Neal, the NBA legend who is now part of TNT’s Inside the NBA crew, will demonstrate AT&T’s 5G service from the arena floor.

O’Neal and the rest of the Inside the NBA cast — Kenny Smith, Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson and Golden State Warriors player Draymond Green — will be host a simulcast of the game on TBS similar to ESPN’s NFL Monday Night Football “Manningcast.”

Other key sponsorships include:

• Kia is presenting the All-Star Game.
• Carmax will present the 90-minute All-Star Tip-Off Show.
• AT&T is presenting the second NBA HBCU Classic on Saturday.
• State Farm is presenting All-Star Saturday Night, with the Kia All-Star Skill Challenge, the Starry 3-Point Contest and the AT&T Slam Dunk Contest.
• The “NBA on TNT American Express Road Show” takes place in downtown Salt Lake City on Thursday. 
• And B/R Utah on Sunday features a Skills Challenge presented by State Farm.

At this year’s All-Star Game, one of the announcers will be female hoops legend Candace Parker.

“Sports is the new primetime,” he said. Very few NBA sponsors are looking to reach men exclusively as female viewership of big games is substantial. “Most of the advertisers are just looking for adults at this point.”

Diament noted that with the confetti barely cleaned up from the Kansas City Chiefs’ victory in Super Bowl LVII, many of the advertisers in the All-Star game will be showing of their Super Bowl ad campaigns.

With the NFL season over, the NBA All-Star Game is the first in a series of big events coming up for Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, including the NBA playoffs, the NHL Stanley Cup playoffs, NCAA March Madness and the beginning of the Major Leauge Baseball season.

“It’s the kickoff to our company’s dominance in sports in the second quarter,’ Diamant said, adding that it was too soon to gauge the strength of the second-quarter market. “We encourage advertisers to buy all season long, and second quarter is really significant for us.” ■

The animated stars of Teen Titans Go! will bring their take on the NBA All-Star weekend Slam dunk contest to Cartoon Network on Sunday Feb.19 at 5 p.m. ET.

The official Slam Dunk contest will air Saturday on TNT. The next  day, Cartoon Network Special Edition: NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest Presented by Jordan Brand, will appear, with basket’s embellished with toon touches and Robin, Raven, Beast Boy, Cyborg and Starfire providing commentary and scoring from the same studio where Inside the NBA is shot.

Other Cartoon Network characters will be involved in the special. Scooby-Doo and Velma will serve as sideline reporters and, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman will return this year to re-score the event’s most impressive dunks.

The NBA and Cartoon Network provided a similar show a year ago.

“Last year’s collaboration with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports and the NBA proved superheroes and basketball make the perfect team so expect this time to be bigger, bolder, and of course, filled to the rim with the best slam dunks,” said Deena Beach, head of marketing, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, and Adult Swim.” “Thanks to our Jordan Brand partner, we will deliver an uninterrupted viewing experience, yet again, for our audience and everyone’s favorite Teen Titans.”

KJ Martin (Houston Rockets), Trey Murphy III (New Orleans Pelicans), Mac McClung (Philadelphia 76ers), and Jericho Sims (New York Knicks) will take flight in the 2023 AT&T Slam Dunk. Fans can watch the 72nd NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 19 on TNT. ■

TNT’s NBA All-Star Game audience wasn’t big enough to help dethrone Fox News Channel from the top of Nielsen‘s weekly primetime ratings charts. 

Fox News averaged 2.4 million viewers in primetime during the week of February 14 to February 20 to top the chart for the fifth straight week, said Nielsen. TNT, propelled by its coverage of NBA All-Star Weekend, moved into second place with 2 million viewers. 

MSNBC and HGTV tied for third place with 1 million viewers, followed by USA Network with 997,000 viewers. Hallmark Channel finished sixth with 959,000 viewers, followed by History (926,000), TLC (899,000), INSP (861,000) and ESPN (841,000).

Fox News blew out the rest of the field on a 24-hour basis, averaging 1.5 million viewers in winning its seventh straight week. MSNBC finished a distant second with 659,000, followed by USA Network (627,000 viewers), HGTV (575,000) and TNT (559,000), Nielsen reported. ■

The pro basketball world will be focused on Atlanta this Sunday as the NBA holds its annual All-Star game festivities, which TNT will air live.

Unlike previous NBA All-Star weekends, where events were held over two days, contests like the 3-Point Contest, the Slam Dunk Contest and the All-Star Game itself will all take place on March 7. The NBA will also pay tribute to Historically Black Colleges and Universities through HBCU-inspired elements incorporated into the broadcast and in-arena during the event.  

I caught up with Turner Sports executive VP and chief content officer Craig Barry to discuss the challenges in producing this year’s All-Star game while still in the midst of the pandemic. Barry also talked about audience expectations for the game, as well as TNT’s second-half season NBA coverage. Here’s an edited excerpt from our conversation. 

Picture This: What adjustments did you have to make for this year’s All-Star game in comparison to last year’s contest? 

Craig Barry: Usually, as soon as we finish an All-Star Game, we're preparing for the next All-Star Game — we look at what we did right, what we did wrong and how to make it a better experience for the fan. This year, it was probably about six weeks ago when we had the realization that an All-Star Game was going to happen. So the challenges of preparing for something in six weeks that we normally quite frankly have a year to think about — and then layered on top of that, the challenge of health and safety, which is obviously the priority — is a relatively large undertaking. Being in Atlanta definitely helps. We’re in our backyard where there's infrastructure already in place. We do have a lot of experience around health and safety protocols having worked in [last season’s NBA] bubble, having done The Match [golf event in 2020], and throughout the [NBA] season this year, but it doesn’t eliminate the risk and the necessary due diligence that needs to be done in order to create the safest environment possible.

PT: What should fans expect from this year’s game that’s different from previous events?

CB: There’s a new format going from two days worth of events and consolidating it into a single evening. We’ve worked with the NBA to come up with a format that makes sense for everyone involved. Disruption breeds innovation, and I think it's an interesting prospect that we are putting all of the weekend into one, six-hour window. It's not optimal, and it's nothing that we would do going forward, but it is an opportunity to be creative and innovative around the opportunity that's given to us. This idea about doing the three-point contest and the skills competition in the hour and a half leading up to the All-Star game, and then airing the dunk contest at halftime is, I think from a fan experience, a really interesting prospect.

On top of that, having all of our talent — whether they're in the booth or in the studio contributing to the entire night of events — is, for me, an interesting opportunity for the fans. We’re leaning into a one-off opportunity and we’re hoping to be as creative and innovative with it as possible.

PT: Are you satisfied with the ratings performance of Turner Sports’ NBA telecasts leading up to the All-Star Game?

CB: We've seen about an 8% to 10% uptick in general. That's pretty admirable when you think about the emotional and mental fatigue that has set in across the nation, and it says a lot about the NBA that people are still tuning in and ratings are up. For the All-Star game, viewers will see the best 24 best players in the world play on the court, and that is a compelling enough reason to watch. I think people are going to be genuinely interested in the format to kind of buckle up for a Sunday evening and watch it all the way through. I'm cautiously optimistic that we'll see good numbers.

PT: Are you also confident the league’s ratings momentum will carry over into the second half of the season?

CB: The second half of the season is the most important season — I’m not discounting the first half of the season, but it’s the drive for the playoffs. The games elevate, the players elevate and the stakes elevate. I feel confident that we're going to continue to see strong, sustainable ratings, if not a certain amount of lift.

Read also: TNT Commissions Documentary on 'Inside the NBA' Show

Fox News Channel topped cable’s weekly ratings charts in primetime and on a total day basis, said Nielsen Media Research.

Fox News drew 2.5 million viewers during the week of Feb. 11 to Feb. 17, topping TNT -- which was bolstered by its coverage of the NBA All-Star game -- and MSNBC, both of which tied for second with 1.9 million viewers.

ESPN finished fourth with an average of 1.4 million subscribers, followed by HGTV with 1.3 million watchers. History (1.2 million), Hallmark Channel (1.1 million), and Investigation Discovery, USA Network, CNN and TBS (all tied with 1 million viewers) rounded out the top 10 most watched network, said Nielsen.

Fox News topped weekly total day ratings for the sixth consecutive week, averaging 1.4 million viewers. MSNBC, Nickelodeon, Investigation Discovery, HGTV and CNN rounded out the top five in the category. 

Fox News was the most watched cable network in primetime and on a total day basis for the second consecutive week in February, according to Nielsen. 

Fox News drew 2.2 million viewers for the week of Feb. 12 to Feb. 18, barely topping TNT’s 2.1 million viewers, according to Nielsen. Winter Olympics-fueled NBCSN finished third with 2 million viewers, followed by MSNBC and USA Network. 

On a total day basis, Fox News beat out MSNBC, MSNBC, Nickelodeon and TNT for top honors.

TNT’s coverage of the NBA All-Star weekend festivities represented the top three most watched shows of the week. Sunday’s game drew 6.4 million viewers to top all shows, while the network’s NBA All-Star Saturday Night coverage (4.6 million) and its Feb. 18 NBA Tip-off coverage (3.3 million) finished second and third respectively, reported Nielsen. 

AMC’s The Walking Dead was the most watched cable show last week with more than 11 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

Cable’s most watched series drew 11.1 million viewers for its Feb. 19 episode, topping all cable shows for the week of Feb. 13-19, according to Nielsen. TNT’s live coverage of Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game from New Orleans was the second-most watched show of the week, averaging 6.5 million viewers, followed by the network’s Feb. 18 coverage of the NBA All-Star Saturday night festivities, which averaged 5.6 million viewers.

Fox News programming represented five of the top 10 most watched shows for the week, including four slots for the The O’Reilly Factor and one for Tucker Carlson Tonight. AMC’s Talking Dead and Discovery Channel’s Gold Rush rounded out the top 10, according to Nielsen.

Turner Sports culminated its coverage of NBA All-Star Weekend festivities with over 7 million viewers for the game from Madison Square Garden on Sunday night.

The 64th annual NBA All-Star Game -- MVP Russell Westbrook scored 41 points to lead the West to a 163-158 win over the East in the highest-scoring showcase to date -- averaged a 4.3 U.S. household rating and 7.2 million viewers to rank as the highest-rated and most-watched sports program of the week.

The audience was down 4% from the 7.5 million for the 2014 contest. The Feb. 15 simulcast on TNT and TBS faced tough competition from NBC's presentation of the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special, which scored 23.1 million watchers, the most for an NBC entertainment show in a non-post-Super Bowl since 2004 (an ER installment following the Frasier finale), and cable's top show, AMC's The Walking Dead.

On Valentine's Day, TNT’s presentation of State Farm All-Star Saturday Night averaged a 3.4 rating and  6.1 million total viewers to stand as the second most-viewed sports program of the week.

In the New York DMA, the telecasts sparked record-setting audiences for NBA All-Star weekend. The NBA All-Star Game simulcast on TNT and TBS earned an 8.8 locally, the highest rating in New York throughout Turner’s history televising the event.  State Farm All-Star Saturday Night netted a 7.2 local rating in the Big Apple, the highest on record for the event in the market.

Collectively, NBA All-Star Game and State Farm All-Star Saturday Night content published across Turner’s NBA on TNT and NBA TV accounts via Facebook and Twitter reached a gross audience of more than 150 million fans and followers and generated more than 25 million video views.

According to Social Guide, NBA All-Star events over the course of the weekend airing on Turner networks were the most-discussed programming across all of television.

NBA All-Star content also propelled growth across live video streams, including Turner’s TVE platforms, with nearly a 90% increase for State Farm All-Star Saturday Night and more than 50% amelioration for the NBA All-Star Game, according to Turner officials.

With Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook netting 41 at Madison Square Garden,  TNT and TBS's simulcast of the NBA All-Star Game dropped a 5.5 overnight rating..

That was up 12% vs. 2014, according to Nielsen data.

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New Yorkers were interested in the contest -- Westbrook (pictured) led the highest-scoring NBA ASG ever with his West squad topping the East 163-158  --  as the TNT-TBS telecast generated an 8.8 local rating in the Big Apple, the highest ever in Turner's history with the event..

The question remains how will the overnight deliveries translate into nationals -- especially given the success of NBC's Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special that garnered 23.1 million watchers and a giant 7.8 adults 18-to-49 rating on an overnight basis.  

Timed to yesterday's NBA All-Star Game, the NBA on TNT and NBA TV accounts – via Facebook and Twitter – reached a total gross audience of 74 million fans/followers who generated some 9.3 million video views

Live video streams for the NBA All-Star Game -- including Turner's TVE platforms -- were up 54% over last year, according to officials at the programmer.