David Barron of the Houston Chronicle reports: This past Sunday's All-Star Game was a ratings hit for TNT.

TNT's major-market audience for the NBA All-Star Game on Sunday night was the largest for a basketball game in cable history, but ratings for the game's first appearance on cable fell short of NBC's rating for the 2002 game.

Based on ratings from the 55 metered markets, TNT said it had a 9.8 rating for its audience base for Sunday night's broadcast. Nielsen Media Research says 83.3 percent of American TV households have either cable or an alternate delivery system, so TNT's 9.8 subscriber rating would yield an equivalent household rating of 8.2.

That beats NBC's 6.8 overnight for 2001 but trailed last year's 9.7 and 2000's 8.3 overnight rating. Final national ratings are expected today.