Just how popular are the Brooklyn Nets?
The Nets, who began their rebirth this season within the five boroughs, gave the YES Network its best Nets ratings for a regular season game.
The game in question was Saturday night versus the Heat, making the most-watched and highest-rated non-playoff Nets game on YES.
A look inside the numbers, the game pulled in an average 158,000 households and an average 2.15 average household rating. The Nets lost to the Heat, 102-89.
Delving deeper, the matchup with Miami was the highest-rated and most-watched regular season Nets game, not featuring the Knicks, on a New York regional sports network in 15 years. To find a better showing, you’d have to go back to a Nets/Bulls tilt in January 1998 on Fox Sports New York that averaged 186,000 households and a 2.80 household rating.
Nielsen numbers also show YES with a huge “Brooklyn boost.”
Comparing the first month last year to this year is staggering. Nets’ telecasts are up a whopping 235 percent among all people 25 to 54 and 200 percent with men 25 to 54.
