A big day of NBA playoff action, both on and off the court, generated viewership highs on both TNT and NBA TV Tuesday.
Game 5 of the Warriors/Clippers first round NBA playoff series earned 4.7 million viewers on TNT Tuesday night, up 50% from Grizzlies/Clippers last year (3.1M) and up 13% from Nuggets/Lakers in 2012 (4.2M). The game edged Rockets/Blazers Game 4 on Sunday night as the most-viewed of the playoffs on cable (4.732M to 4.727M).
Tuesday’s game was played just hours after the NBA banned the Clippers’ owner for life.
Earlier in the night, Wizards/Bulls Game 5 drew 4.0 million viewers — up 36% from Warriors/Nuggets last year (3.0M) and up 9% from Celtics/Hawks in 2012 (3.7M). The last ten NBA playoff games on TNT (through Tuesday) have each had increases over last year.
According to Sports Business Daily, TNT is averaging 3.8 million viewers for playoff coverage, up 21% from the same number of games last year.
Relegated to NBA TV in favor of Wizards/Bulls, Game 5 of the Grizzlies/Thunder series earned 939,000 viewers — the largest audience for NBA TV since the network became Nielsen rated in 2010. The previous high was 868,000 viewers for a regular season Lakers/Blazers game in 2012.
(Tue. numbers from The Futon Critic, Sports Business Daily)
