ESPN announced yesterday that Game 5 of the NBA Finals on ABC between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks averaged 12.22 million viewers and attained a record-setting share of audience in the People 18-34 demographic. As a whole, the NBA Finals averaged 11.31 million viewers and a 5.8 rating, according to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, which represents a 3% decline in viewership compared to last year. Excluding the 2020 and 2021 NBA Finals, both of which were altered because of the global pandemic, the 2024 NBA Finals is the lowest-rated on record and the least-watched iteration of the championship round since 2007. RJ Choppy discussed the viewership metrics during the Shan & RJ morning show on 105.3 The Fan where he divulged the information to the listening audience.
Shan Sharriff, co-host of the program, acknowledged that the fact that Game 4 ratings were not released until several days after the contest was indicative that the game did not perform well. Game 4 ended up being the least-watched contest in the series, averaging 9.62 million viewers and a 4.7 rating on ABC. The 2020 and 2021 NBA Finals series notwithstanding, no NBA Finals game had a smaller audience than the game since Game 3 of the 2007 NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers, which drew an average of 9.49 million viewers on ABC. Nielsen began tracking out-of-home viewing in 2016 and implementing the figures into its viewership estimates four years later.
“We started getting some really juiced numbers,” Shariff said. “Every single sport was setting records where, ‘Oh my gosh, look at viewership records and how high this is,’ so I feel like era-adjusted, Chop, that viewership may actually be higher for Suns-Bucks.”
Earlier in the week, Nielsen Media Research reported that streaming usage had been measured to encompass 38.8% of total day television viewing among Persons 2+ in May 2024. ESPN broadcasts of NBA games across ESPN, ABC and ESPN2 averaged 1.7 million during the regular season, some of which included simulcasts or alternate broadcasts. With the NBA reportedly nearing a new media rights contract with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC), NBCUniversal and Amazon’s Prime Video worth a collective $76 billion, Choppy believes there has to be some concern with the performance on broadcast television.
“We are now in the post-LeBron; post-Warrior dynasty era,” Choppy said. “I think this is the new reality of TV ratings in the NBA. The Warriors-Cavs, which was a 4-0 sweep in 2018 – this series averaged a 5.8; that averaged a 10, and that was 2018. It was 4-zip, it was a sweep and it averaged almost 18 million viewers a night. This one averaged 11 million a night.”
Shariff expressed that he felt the NBA Finals matchup was compelling with storylines surrounding Kyrie Irving and involving big marketplaces. The series, he outlined, was lacking the presence of Los Angeles Lakers forward and four-time NBA champion LeBron James, along with potential interest from the West Coast. Choppy added that the Celtics did not have a transcendent superstar on the team whereas the Mavericks did and is not sure if it plays into the numbers. He then proceeded to draw a comparison to the 2023 World Series, which featured the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks. The five-game series averaged 9.11 million viewers with a 4.7 rating on FOX, according to data from Nielsen Media Research, marking the lowest-rated and least-watched World Series on record.
“MLB does better,” Choppy said. “Now this year they didn’t – this was a very lowly-rated World Series. The World Series this year was the fewest viewers for each game in the first four games in league history [that] the league had ever seen. They were getting 8 and 9 million viewers, so it wasn’t as bad as that, but it’s basically what every World Series or worse had done in recent memory.”
