Stronger NFL competition and fewer ABC games combined to sack NBA Christmas viewership for a loss.
The five-game NBA Christmas Day schedule averaged a 1.3 rating and 2.85 million viewers on the ESPN family of networks, down 23% in ratings and 30% in viewership from last year and the league’s least-watched Christmas Day slate on record. Viewership declined for all five windows.
The featured Celtics-Lakers game was the most-watched of the day with a 2.1 rating and 5.01 million across ABC (1.4, 3.33M) and ESPN (0.7, 1.69M), down 7% in ratings and 18% in viewership from Bucks-Celtics in the same window last year (2.3, 6.08M).
Warriors-Nuggets placed second with a 1.8 and 4.13 million — a 1.0 and 2.37 million on ABC and a 0.8 and 1.76 million on ESPN — flat in ratings and down 6% in viewership from Lakers-Mavericks a year ago (1.8, 4.38M).
Shifting to the ESPN portion of the schedule, Bucks-Knicks led the way with a 1.2 and 2.49 million across ESPN (1.1, 2.36M) and ESPN2 (0.1, 128K) — down 36% in ratings and 39% in viewership from Sixers-Knicks on ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 last year (1.9, 4.07M). The late night Mavericks-Suns game averaged a 0.7 and 1.47 million on ESPN, down 40% and 42% respectively from Suns-Nuggets last year on ABC and ESPN (1.2, 2.52M).
Bringing up the rear, Sixers-Heat averaged a 0.6 and 1.30 million on ESPN (0.55, 1.19M) and ESPN2 (0.1, 104K), down a whopping 69% and 73% respectively from Grizzlies-Warriors on ABC and ESPN a year ago (1.9, 4.75M). Miami’s win delivered the smallest Christmas Day NBA audience on record.
This year’s Christmas slate was always going to be difficult for the NBA. This was the second-straight year that the NFL scheduled three games on the holiday, but unlike last year — when the schedule included two duds, Broncos-Rams and Buccaneers-Cardinals — all three games were strong on paper. The two afternoon games featured last year’s Super Bowl finalists facing historic rivals, while the primetime game pit the two best teams in the league.
Moreover, because Christmas fell on a Monday, the NFL scheduled its primetime game for ABC — leaving the NBA unable to simulcast all five games on the broadcast network as was the case last year. All three NFL games averaged north of 27 million, while last year’s schedule topped out at 25 million.
Despite the sharp declines, Christmas Day once again produced the largest audience of the NBA season. Celtics-Lakers topped the previous high set by the Pacers-Lakers NBA In-Season Tournament Final earlier this month (4.58M). Warriors-Nuggets ranks third for the season and even Bucks-Knicks placed in the top ten (eighth).
