NBA playoff ratings are a tale of two dayparts.
Thursday’s Blazers-Lakers first round NBA playoff Game 2 averaged a 1.9 rating and 2.94 million viewers on ESPN, up 12% in ratings and 13% in viewership from the comparable window on day four of last year’s playoffs, Thunder-Blazers Game 2 on a Tuesday (1.7, 2.59M). Compared to the first Thursday of last year’s playoffs, ratings fell 14% and viewership 11% from Warriors-Clippers Game 3 (2.2, 3.32M).
The Lakers’ win averaged more viewers than any Game 2 of last year’s first round.
The Blazers-Lakers series has delivered the two largest audiences of the playoffs, with Game 1 holding the top spot (2.15, 3.45M). Game 1 was also up double-digits from last year.
Game 2 was television’s top program of the night in adults 18-34 (1.3) and 18-49 (1.2), though it should be noted that competing political convention coverage was split across multiple networks.
In other action, Mavericks-Clippers Game 2 averaged a 1.5 and 2.28 million on TNT Wednesday — down 17% in ratings and 18% in viewership from Clippers-Warriors on day three of last year’s playoffs (1.85, 2.77M). Compared to the first Wednesday of last year’s playoffs, ratings fell 12% and viewership 11% from Jazz-Rockets (1.7, 2.58M).
The four NBA playoff windows to begin in primetime (after 8 PM ET, or 7 PM on Sundays) have averaged 2.74 million viewers. That is up 16% from what primetime games averaged through the first Thursday of last year’s playoffs (14 telecasts: 2.34M). Last year’s average includes one game on ABC and three on NBA TV; excluding those, the primetime average was 2.69 million.
Afternoon and evening windows have been far weaker, averaging just 1.28 million viewers. Magic-Bucks averaged 1.63 million in the 6 PM window on Thursday, down 27% from an 8 PM Magic-Raptors game on day four of last year’s playoffs (2.24M). Rockets-Thunder averaged 1.32 million at 3:30 PM and Heat-Pacers just 764,000 at 1 PM.
On Wednesday, Sixers-Celtics averaged 1.71 million at 6:30 PM — down 40% from an 8 PM Nets-Sixers game on day three of last year’s playoffs (2.85M). Jazz-Nuggets averaged 1.07 million at 4 PM and Nets-Raptors chipped in just 281,000 on NBA TV at 1:30 PM.
Across all windows, this year’s NBA Playoffs is averaging 1.68 million viewers, down 30% from 2.39 million through the first Thursday last year. In addition to the dearth of primetime games thus far, no game has yet aired on broadcast network ABC — compared to two at the same point last year.
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 8.21, 8.20, 8.19; ShowBuzz Daily 8.20, 8.21]
