NBA ratings are increasing, at least for prime time games, as the playoffs advance, Sports Media Watch reported.
In a story titled “NBA Primetime Playoffs, But Not Enough to Get Over the Game Flood of the Day,” Sports Media Watch quoted Nielsen ratings as noting that overall playoff ratings are down 30% from last season.
But a lot of that seems to have to do with the fact that the league was forced to broadcast matches during weekday afternoon hours. – when television viewing generally suffers regardless of programming.
This is especially true in the summer.
“Other than the scarcity of prime time games so far, no games have yet aired on the ABC television network – compared to two at the same point last year,” Sports Media Watch reported.
On the plus side, the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 2 win over the Portland Trail Blazers on ESPN averaged 1.9 and 2.94 million viewers, which was better than any Game 2 in last year’s playoffs.
Overall, this season’s prime time games have averaged 2.74 million viewers, up 16% from the first Thursday of the 2019 playoffs. Prime time games are the ones that blow past 8pm: 00 EST (and 7pm EST on weekends).
So it’s the afternoon and early evening matches that have lowered the audience. According to Sports Media Watch, they average a paltry 1.28 viewers at the start of the playoffs.
For the most part, it will be interesting to see how these ratings are affected once other teams are eliminated and all matches go through prime time.
The early numbers indicate that the NBA can expect to get spectators for the conference finals and finals, although for the first time ever, those series will likely clash with the NFL regular season and MLB playoffs.
