For the second time in three years, all five NBA Christmas Day games will be simulcast on ABC.
ESPN confirmed Monday that ABC will simulcast all five of the network’s NBA Christmas Day games this season, adding the Noon ET Spurs-Knicks and 10:30 PM ET Nuggets-Suns games to its previously-scheduled lineup of Timberwolves-Mavericks at 2:30, Sixers-Celtics at 5:00 and Lakers-Warriors at 8:00. (The scheduling change was first noticed by the TVSportsUpdates social media account.)
ABC previously aired all five games in 2022. Last season, the network carried only two of five, owing in part to primetime NFL commitments — its fewest on the holiday since 2016.
The ABC simulcasts should help the NBA weather NFL competition on the holiday, which had not originally been expected as Christmas falls on a Wednesday this year.
In 2022, the NBA Christmas Day audience grew by five percent despite the NFL scheduling a competing tripleheader for the first time. Given last year’s record-low Christmas audience, and the fact that the NFL has scheduled just two games — both on Netflix — the NBA should benefit even further this time around. That could have a meaningful impact on its overall regular season audience; last season’s Christmas performance dragged the regular season average across ABC, ESPN and TNT from a 2% increase to a 1% decline.
The additional Christmas games are just the latest additions to ABC’s sports lineup. The network has also added an extra six Monday Night Football simulcasts.
