The NBA Draft delivered one of its largest audiences on record.
The NBA Draft earned a 2.2 final rating and 3.4 million viewers on ESPN Thursday night, up 16% in ratings and 14% in viewership from last year (1.9, 3.0M) but down 8% and 9% respectively from 2015 (2.4, 3.7M).
The telecast attracted an additional 135,000 viewers on WatchESPN, up 55% from last year and a record streaming audience for the event. Across TV and streaming, the draft had 3.55 million viewers (+16%), its third-largest audience on record behind 2015 and 1995 (3.62M).
To put the growth in streaming in perspective, TV viewership for the draft was virtually the same three years ago — 3.45 million then, compared to 3.42 million now. Streaming viewership on the other hand has increasd nearly 500% from 23,000 in 2014 to this year’s 135,000.
The draft pulled a 1.4 rating in adults 18-49, up 16% from last year (1.2) but down a tick from 2015 (1.5). Its 1.2 rating in adults 18-34 was actually down a tick from last year (1.3) and down 25% from 2015 (1.6). For the night, it was the top show on all of television in both demos.
Louisville led all markets with a 5.3 rating, followed by Charlotte (4.7), Indianapolis (4.4), Norfolk, Va. (4.0) and Oklahoma City (3.9).
As usual, the NBA Draft was no match for its NFL counterpart, which averaged a combined 2.9 and 4.6 million on ESPN and NFL Network over three days. It easily outdrew other major sports drafts, topping the MLB Draft ten days earlier by nearly 1,200% (265K).
[Thu. numbers from Programming Insider 6.23, ESPN PR/Twitter 6.23]
