Basketball: Tall Blacks drag 800,000 out of bed

By LOUISA CLEAVE

Almost 800,000 New Zealanders tuned in to watch the Tall Blacks play Yugoslavia on Sunday morning.

The Basketball World Championship semifinals game delivered TV One among the biggest Sunday morning audiences TVNZ could recall.

Coverage started at 5.50am with about 35,000 viewers, but the audience slowly built, peaking at 793,800 just before 10.30am. The ratings held steady until the end, according to figures from ACNielsen for all viewers aged five and over.

Sunday morning TV audiences would normally number about 30,000 to 40,000.

In terms of sport coverage, the ratings were being compared with popular events such as the Rugby World Cup, New Zealand winning the America's Cup in 1995 and the opening ceremony at the Olympics.

The Tall Blacks' quarter-final against Puerto Rico, which screened on Friday afternoon, drew an average audience of 177,000 viewers.

The Thursday showdown with China attracted about 106,000 viewers.