The NBA returned to NBC Sports this year, and it felt like the pinnacle of the league again in more ways than one — record numbers of fans were tuning in for games.
More than 170 million people in the United States tuned in and watched regular-season NBA games this season across their partners — ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and NBA TV — the most in 24 years the league announced. That number is up 86% compared to last season.
Those numbers rang true at NBC:
• Sunday Night Basketball averaged 3.4 million viewers this season, making it the most-watched Sunday NBA package in 13 years (excluding Christmas Day games) as well as the most-watched NBA window since the 2015-16 season.
• Coast 2 Coast Tuesday averaged 2.6 million viewers, up 99% vs. the comparable games last year.
• Sunday night’s studio show – Basketball Night in America – averaged 1.6 million viewers, making it the most-watched NBA pregame program in 15 years.
It wasn’t just NBC that saw growth this year. NBA on Prime averaged one million viewers across 67 total contests, with 14 games airing in entirely new game windows. Prime’s biggest single-game came in the finals of the NBA Cup in December, featuring the Spurs and Knicks, drawing more than 3 million viewers. Prime, like NBC with Peacock, did particularly well with younger viewers, who are a coveted demographic (at Peacock, nine out of 10 NBA game viewers also watched other content on the service).
There are more stats backing up the growth:
• Overall, NBA games on ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, and NBC/Peacock averaged 1.78 million viewers, the most in seven years and up 16% over last season.
• There were 57 telecasts this season that averaged at least two million viewers, the most since the 2011-12 regular season.
• There were 19 telecasts that averaged at least three million viewers, the most since the 2012-13 regular season.
All of this comes before the NBA heads to the playoffs, when viewership traditionally spikes.
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