After viewership fell across the board during the regular season, the NBA bounced back with across-the-board increases for the first round of the playoffs.
The first round of the NBA Playoffs averaged 3.1 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, TNT and NBA TV, up 12% from last year and the highest average since 2014, when five series went seven games.
In particular, ABC averaged 5.4 million viewers (+11%), TNT 3.4 million (+12%) and ESPN 3.0 million (+14%). It was the most-watched first round on ABC since 2011 and the most-watched on TNT and ESPN since 2014.
Streaming viewership also increased 31% for the ABC games (from 73K to 96K) and 41% for games on ESPN (from 68K to 95K). Comparable figures for TNT were not available.
In the final game of the first round, Sunday’s Jazz-Clippers Game 7 earned a 3.7 final rating and 5.8 million viewers on ABC — down 10% in ratings and 12% in viewership from Blazers-Warriors Game 1 last year (4.1, 6.7M) but up 23% and 24% respectively from Grizzlies-Warriors Game 1 in 2015 (3.0, 4.7M). Compared to the most recent first round Game 7 in the timeslot, Mavericks-Spurs in 2014, ratings fell 12% and viewership 10% from a 4.2 and 6.5 million.
Utah’s sleepy win delivered the fifth-largest audience for a first round Game 7 in the past ten seasons, and the third-largest on ABC since the network began carrying the NBA in 2002-03. It was the day’s top program on television in adults 18-49 (2.1).
(Averages from NBA, ESPN, Turner; Sun. numbers via ShowBuzz Daily 5.2)
