The declines are steep and the lows historic, but all is not lost as the NBA enters the final chapter of its protracted season.
The NBA conference finals averaged approximately 4.18 million viewers across ESPN and TNT, down 35% from last year (6.42M) and the smallest audience for the round since at least 2007. The 11 games played this year rank among the 14 least-watched conference final games since 2007, joining Raptors-Bucks Game 2 last year (4.39M) and Games 1 and 2 of Spurs-Grizzlies in 2013 (4.85 and 4.62M).
This year’s numbers come with any number of obvious caveats. The postseason is taking place sans-fans four months later than scheduled. More than half of the games either aired directly opposite the NFL (four) or on a college football Saturday (two). Four games began prior to 8 PM ET, including one that started at 6:30 PM ET on a weekday.
Last year’s games, by comparison, aired as scheduled in late May. Only one game started before 8 PM and none faced anything approaching NFL-level competition.
If low by conference final standards, the games held up well by most others. Saturday’s clinching Nuggets-Lakers Game 5 was the weekend’s highest rated and most-watched non-NFL sporting event with a 2.4 and 4.79 million viewers on TNT, easily winning a crowded head-to-head against college football (Florida State-Miami: 1.6, 2.95M; Alabama-Missouri: 1.15, 2.09M) and Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final (1.5, 2.71M).
Heat-Celtics Game 5 the previous night averaged a 2.35 and 4.37 million on ESPN, down 38% and 37% respectively from last year (Raptors-Bucks: 3.8, 6.23M), but still the night’s top television program on any network in viewership and the key adult demographics.
As one would expect, the games were the two least-watched conference final Game 5s since 2007 (Jazz-Spurs: 3.97M). Still, they helped the NBA top the charts in adults 18-49 for the 25th and 26th time in 35 nights this postseason. The number of nightly wins rises to 30 among men 18-49.
Rounding out the recent action, Sunday’s Celtics-Heat Game 6 averaged a 1.8 and 3.45 million on ESPN opposite NBC’s Sunday Night Football — the least-watched conference final clincher since Pistons-Nets Game 4 in 2003 (2.72M), but up 5% in ratings and 9% in viewership from Nuggets-Lakers opposite SNF the previous weekend (1.75, 3.17M).
[Nielsen estimates from ShowBuzz Daily 9.29]
