Back in its normal time of year, and bolstered by a broadcast network simulcast, NBA Draft viewership was close to the pre-hiatus norm.
Thursday’s NBA Draft averaged 3.05 million viewers on ESPN and ABC, up a third from last year — when the event aired in late July opposite the Summer Olympics — and down only slightly from 2019, the previous Draft to take place in the normal time of year (3.09M). Keep in mind that there was no broadcast television coverage prior to last year and that out-of-home viewing was not factored into the viewership for 2019 or prior years.
The opening round averaged a combined 2.4 rating and 3.99 million viewers (+32%), with the traditional ESPN telecast (1.2, 2.04M) slightly outpacing ABC’s coverage (1.2, 1.95M). ESPN’s coverage was a considerably stronger draw in the key adult demographics, easily outpacing ABC in 18-49 (0.7 to 0.39), 18-34 (0.7 to 0.26) and 25-54 (0.8 to 0.53). Combined, the first round was easily the night’s top program in each of the respective demographics (1.1, 0.9, 1.3) and in viewership.
The second round averaged just 1.12 million on ESPN alone.
Keeping the broadcast network and out-of-home caveats in mind, this year’s Draft audience is line with what had been common prior to the league’s hiatus two years ago. The Draft averaged 3.0 or 3.1 million viewers in five of eight years from 2012-19, the exceptions being 2014 (3.45M), 2015 (3.74M) and 2017 (3.55M).
Overall, this year’s Draft ranks seventh in viewership out of the past 15.
As goes almost without saying, the NBA Draft remains no match for its NFL counterpart. The NFL Draft averaged 5.2 million viewers over three days, including 10.03 million for the first round.
[Nielsen estimates from Programming Insider 6.24, ESPN PR/Twitter 6.24]
