A pair of Western Conference series scored increases on ESPN Friday night. In other news, weekend NHL action was a mixed bag, and Friday’s NHL doubleheader delivered big gains.
West Up, East Down, in Friday’s NBA Playoff Action
- Friday’s Rockets-Thunder NBA Playoffs Game 3 earned a 2.2 final rating and 3.4 million viewers on ESPN, up 29% in ratings and 28% in viewership from Spurs-Grizzlies last year (1.7, 2.7M) and flat and up 1% respectively from Clippers-Spurs in 2015 (2.2, 3.4M). Airing concurrently on ESPN2, Clippers-Jazz had a 0.6 (flat) and 994,000 (+1%) — that network’s most-watched NBA playoff game since 2014. Earlier in the night, Celtics-Bulls had a 1.6 and 2.5 million, down 6% in both measures from Cavaliers-Pistons last year (1.7, 2.7M) and flat and up 2% respectively from Rockets-Mavericks in 2015 (1.6, 2.5M). The declines were a sharp departure from the series’ first two games, which both increased more than 70% in viewership.
Weekend NHL Overnights Mixed on NBC, Hit High on NBCSN
- Saturday’s Canadiens-Rangers Stanley Cup Playoffs Game 6 had a 1.6 overnight rating on NBC, off 20% from Blues-Blackhawks last year (2.0) and down 11% from Predators-Blackhawks in 2015 (1.8). NBC’s afternoon games performed better vis-a-vis last year, with both Wild-Blues Game 5 on Saturday and Senators-Bruins Game 6 on Sunday scoring a 1.4 overnight — up 17% from a 1.2 for the year-ago Rangers-Penguins and Wild-Stars games.
Final Leafs-Caps Games Big For NBCSN
- Sunday’s Capitals-Maple Leafs Game 6 delivered a 0.9 overnight rating on NBCSN, the network’s best first round overnight on record, excluding game sevens. Game 5 of the series Friday night earned a 0.4 final rating and 642,000 viewers, up 60% in ratings (from 0.25 to 0.40) and 12% in viewership (from 571K to 642K) versus Flyers-Capitals last year, and flat and up 2% respectively from Penguins-Rangers in 2015 (0.4, 627K). Viewership increased for the first five games of the series. On CNBC, the concurrent Senators-Bruins Game 5 had 525,000 viewers — up 79% from Islanders-Panthers last year (294K) and up 130% from Senators-Canadiens in 2015 (228K).
(Numbers via Programming Insider 4.24, Sports Business Daily 4.24, NBC Sports/Twitter 4.24)
