With the league’s top two draws shorthanded and under .500, NBA viewership is down slightly entering the league’s marquee Christmas Day slate.
NBA regular season games have averaged a 0.9 rating and 1.5 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT entering Christmas Day, flat in ratings but down 5% in viewership from the same point last year. The 5% drop is in line with the decline in cable distribution over that span (from over 83 million to under 79 million).
It should be noted that the average share — 2.7 — is up 4% from last year. As linear TV usage declines, even declining audiences will generally make up a greater percentage of the shrinking viewership pie.
On Tuesday, TNT averaged 1.17 million viewers for the Knicks’ rout of the Stephen Curry-less Warriors — nearly tripling last year’s equivalent Pacers-Heat game, which faced unscheduled NFL competition and was the least-watched game on TNT or ESPN last season (~393K). TNT coverage was blacked out in the Bay Area.
(Last year’s Warriors-Knicks game on TNT, which saw Curry set the all-time three-point shooting record, averaged more than twice the audience at north of 2.3 million.)
Most other games over the past week have posted declines. Tuesday’s Grizzlies-Nuggets nightcap (1.02M) fell more than 30% from Suns-Lakers last year (~1.5M).
Going back to last Friday on ESPN, Nuggets-Lakers scored a 0.9 rating (-2%) and 1.61 million viewers (+1%, pending revision) and Warriors-Sixers a 0.9 (-19%) and 1.48 million (-15%, pending revision). Despite their subpar record, the Lakers have played in two of the three most-watched NBA games over the past month.
Two nights earlier, ESPN drew a 0.7 and 1.24 million for Knicks-Bulls and a 0.6 and 1.03 million for Timberwolves-Clippers, both down double-digits year-over-year (Lakers-Mavericks: 1.1, ~1.9M; Clippers-Jazz: 0.8, ~1.4M).
While the linear TV audience is down, the NBA says viewership on NBA League Pass is up nearly 60% and the number of video views on the NBA app has nearly tripled from last year.
(Nielsen estimates from league PR, ShowBuzz Daily 12.20, 12.21)
