The Orlando Magic’s season opener against the Washington Wizards was the team’s highest rated since the 2011 season, according to Nielsen ratings.
Wednesday night’s Orlando Magic season opening loss to the Washington Wizards was the Magic’s highest rated season opening broadcast on Fox Sports Florida since the 2011 season opener.
Wednesday night’s rating was the highest rated Magic season opener telecast in the post Dwight Howard era.
https://twitter.com/FOXSportsMagic/status/659824252305018882
Wednesday night’s rating was the second highest rated Magic game since the start of last season according to Josh Robbins of the Orlando Sentinel.
The 1.74 rating is the second-highest Fox Sports Florida rating for a Magic game since the start of last season, Nielsen figures show.
— Josh Robbins (@JoshuaBRobbins) October 29, 2015
The Magic’s season opener according to Fox Sports Florida and the Magic got a 1.74 TV rating which is 121 percent higher than last season’s Magic season opener which was a road loss against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Fox Sports Florida’s first broadcast of the 2011 season was the Magic’s second game of the season on Oct. 29, 2010 as the Magic played in Miami as the Magic took on the newly constructed Miami Heat. It was the Heat’s first home game in the LeBron James, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade era. The Heat won 96-70. The game was also televised on ESPN.
The Orlando Magic’s actual season opener of the 2011 season was the night before the Heat game on Oct. 28 against the Washington Wizards. It was the first regular season game played at the Amway Center and marked the debut in the NBA of John Wall. The game aired exclusively on TNT and garnered 1.5 million viewers nationally.
The 2011 was also Dwight Howard’s penultimate season with the Magic. It was Magic team that had just came off an Eastern Conference Finals loss to the Boston Celtics and made the NBA Finals the previous season.
Wednesday’s night rating was the highest Magic season opener telecast in the post Dwight Howard era.
It is a positive sign for the Magic as the television numbers have been trending downward since Howard’s departure from Orlando.
According to Robbins, during the 2012 season local Magic telecasts on Sun Sports drew an average audience of 48,733 viewers during each game, according to Nielsen ratings.
In comparison, last season Fox Sports Florida which televised all 82 regular season games drew an average audience of 15,676 viewers during each game, the Nielsen ratings show. Those numbers resulted in the Magic being among the bottom five teams in the NBA in local TV ratings.
With optimism about being a playoff contending team with the core of the team being more familiar to the Orlando community are all reasons for possible increased in viewership. In other words, if the team wins on the court then the ratings will take care of itself.
[…] Magic’s opening night loss to Washington Wizards was the highest rated Magic season opening game on Fox Sports Florida since 2010. The Magic’s first win of the season at New Orleans garnered similar numbers to […]