NBA playoff viewership continues to slide.
Through Thursday, viewership has declined for 38 of the 48 NBA playoff games that can be compared to last year, with 34 of those games down by double-digits and 31 hitting multi-year lows. Excluding Warriors games, a whopping 36 of 40 games have declined.
Thursday’s Raptors-Sixers Game 3 earned 3.93 million viewers on ESPN, down 23% from Sixers-Celtics Game 2 on TNT last year (5.12M) and down 3% from Celtics-Wizards Game 3 on ESPN in 2017 (4.06M). Ratings were not immediately available.
On Wednesday night, Blazers-Nuggets Game 2 had a 2.2 rating and 3.51 million viewers on TNT — down 19% in ratings and viewership from last year (Jazz-Rockets: 2.7, 4.34M) and down 27% in both measures from 2017 (Rockets-Spurs: 3.0, 4.79M).
Every Sixers, Raptors and Blazers game this postseason has declined, though that is no shock given the overall downward trend. Only four of the 12 series this postseason have managed a single increase in viewership — Warriors-Clippers (four times), Warriors-Rockets (twice), Celtics-Pacers (twice) and Spurs-Nuggets (twice). Both of the Spurs-Nuggets games to increase aired on NBA TV and had a lower bar to clear.
[Numbers from Nielsen via Programming Insider 5.2, ShowBuzz Daily 5.3]
