NBA Playoff Ratings Up 6% Through First Round

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The Minnesota Timberwolves may have robbed the NBA’s media partners of a quarterfinals collision between perennial ratings champs LeBron James and Steph Curry, but the league has momentum on its side as the second round of the playoffs begins to heat up.

According to Nielsen live-plus-same-day data, the opening salvo of the NBA postseason averaged 3.71 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT/truTV, which marks a 6% increase versus the year-ago 3.49 million. The Disney networks did much of the heavy lifting in the first round, as deliveries across the 12 ABC/ESPN games were up 14% year-to-year, while the TNT Sports channels saw a more modest 4% lift as their long association with the NBA nears an end.

As expected, big-reach broadcaster ABC has put up the biggest audience numbers, averaging 5.55 million viewers for its half-dozen weekend airings, up 13% from last year’s analogous stretch (4.9 million). ABC carried the most-watched playoff outing thus far, as Minnesota’s 116-113 win over Los Angeles on April 27 averaged 7.35 million viewers in the Sunday matinee (3:30 p.m. ET) slot.

ABC also was the beneficiary of an opening weekend that coincided with the Easter holiday, a date that has proven to be a boon for out-of-home viewing. With an average draw of 5.57 million viewers, deliveries for the network’s April 20 doubleheader were up a massive 32%, as ABC reaped the benefit of all those additional impressions that were captured via brunches and family celebrations. TNT’s own Easter two-fer also enjoyed a considerable boost, as its evening and primetime telecasts were up 23% to 4.13 million viewers.

Bear in mind that there’s been a distinct uptick in out-of-home impressions since Nielsen expanded coverage of its OOH panel earlier this year. The combination of the more inclusive metric and the Easter lift conspired to help boost the opening weekend’s deliveries by 17%.

While the NBA didn’t maintain that big year-over-year surge for long—after the second weekend of the playoffs, the rate-of-change was +4%—the first round finished on a strong note, as TNT averaged 6.63 million viewers for Game 7 of the Warriors-Rockets series. With an average draw of 4.51 million viewers per game, that maxed-out set stands as the playoffs’ second-biggest attraction, trailing only the truncated Wolves-Lakers series (5.1 million).

From a ratings standpoint, the Lakers’ early exit is less than ideal, as it dashed hopes for a second-round showdown with Golden State. When James and Curry crossed swords in the 2023 playoffs, that six-game slate averaged 7.8 million viewers, peaking with 8.64 million for the deciding telecast on ESPN.

While there won’t be a Lakers-Warriors juggernaut to help boost the NBA’s numbers this time around—the 2023 series was the most-watched conference semifinals in 27 years—a lengthy Knicks-Celtics duel could go a long way toward staving off a letdown. While the ratings for Game 1 of the New York-Boston tilt have yet to be issued, the rekindled rivalry between these two major-market franchises guarantees that at least one high-profile team will punch its ticket to the Eastern Conference Finals.

Together, the combined reach of the nation’s largest media market (New York boasts 7.49 million TV households) and the No. 9 DMA (2.58 million) translates into a hometown rooting interest for 8% of all U.S. TV homes. All told, the Eastern time zone is home to 48% of all TV users.

Out West, any best-case scenario involves Curry and the Warriors advancing to the Finals. The rest of the field is littered with smaller-market clubs, with top seed Oklahoma repping a market with 762,700 TV homes, giving the Thunder 40% of the local reach of the Nuggets and Timberwolves.

Coverage of the NBA playoffs continues Wednesday night with Game 2 of Knicks-Celtics tipping off at 7 p.m. ET, followed by Nuggets-Thunder in the 9:30 p.m. slot. Both games will be carried by TNT/truTV.

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