Lin has become a ratings bonanza for MSG
Jeremy Lin of the New York Knicks looks on after the game against the Los Angeles Lakers. (Feb. 10, 2012) Credit: Jim McIsaac
Strange but true: A mere 50 days ago, the Knicks had yet to play their first game this season on MSG, a network that -- with all due respect to its hockey inventory -- always has relied heavily on hoops.
Programming executives had done what they could during the NBA lockout, which wasn't much. The network was not permitted even to show archived footage that featured current players.
Seven weeks later . . . well, let Mike Bair, president of MSG Media, tell it: "You could not have written a worse story leading up to the season, and you couldn't write a better story now.''
First, a quick review: The campaign began with intrigue over how Year 2 of the Melo-Amar'e Experience would turn out, and for most of the early weeks, it didn't turn out well at all.
Then, just as that story line got stale -- and just in time for the Giants' Super Bowl run to end -- along came you-know-who to jump-start the season.
Now, beginning Tuesday night, the next chapter in the drama: How will Jeremy Lin's game mesh with those of Amar'e Stoudemire and Carmelo Anthony?
All of this naturally is extremely good for ratings, and thus for business. Bair called it "the gift that keeps on giving.''
Through 24 games, Knicks games on MSG are averaging 2.02 percent of homes in the area, up 71 percent from the same point last season and 85 percent from two seasons ago.
That is particularly impressive because since Jan. 1, MSG has been locked in a carriage dispute with Time Warner Cable, depriving the network of about 1.1 million customers in the heart of Knicks country.
What about Lin-sanity? Glad you asked!
In the four games Lin has started, MSG is averaging a 3.08 rating, up 70 percent from its 20 games pre-Lin. That figure would have been even higher if Friday's upset of the Lakers hadn't also been on ESPN, which attracted 3.87 percent of homes compared with 3.05 for MSG.
That means that overall, nearly 7 percent of homes in the area saw the game in which Lin scored 38 points and upstaged Kobe Bryant. Not bad for an NBA game on a Friday night in February.
On Saturday, the Knicks' game against the Timberwolves recorded a 4.17 rating, the best for MSG since Anthony's debut last February.
"The fundamental thing to remember is that this is a basketball city, and if the Knicks look remotely potent, I think there's a real following,'' Bair said.
TV ratings tell only part of the story. Replica Lin jerseys, which didn't exist a week ago, are in heavy demand, with traffic on NYKnicksStore.com up 3,000 percent last week over the previous week.
The NYKnicks.com and KnicksNow.com websites experienced a 550-percent increase in traffic, with 4.7 million page views. Video views were up 1,205 percent. The Knicks added 125,000 Facebook likes and 12,000 Twitter followers last week. MSG.com experienced a 223- percent increase in traffic.
MSG's stock rose to a record high of $33.18 (Monday morning) and closed slightly lower than that. David Joyce, an analyst at Miller Tabak + Co., told Bloomberg that Lin's emergence has provided a boost -- perhaps based on hope for a resolution with Time Warner. If one comes soon, the ratings figure to take another leap.
"We're looking forward to the fact that when and if they do come back, we should see some significant gains on these overall numbers,'' Bair said, "probably on a level we have not seen in a decade.''
How long can this go on? Too soon to tell. But there is no end in sight. Tuesday was Lin's 10th consecutive day as the primary or secondary subject of Newsday's sports back page.
Lin-credible. Remember when Eli Manning was the most popular athlete in New York?
The Dolan family owns
controlling interests in the Knicks, MSG and Cablevision. Cablevision owns Newsday.
