The final matchup within the Emirates NBA Cup in-season tournament, which featured the Milwaukee Bucks facing the Oklahoma City Thunder, garnered the second-largest audience of the NBA season. The game, which aired in primetime on ABC, averaged 2.99 million viewers, which is down 35% compared to last year’s final matchup. LeBron James and Anthony Davis led the Los Angeles Lakers to a victory in that year over the Indiana Pacers in a game that averaged 4.58 million viewers. The 1.75 rating is also down 29% compared to last year, according to data from Nielsen Media Research.
Viewership of the National Basketball Association on ABC, ESPN and TNT is down a collective 19% from last season, amassing an audience of 1.4 million viewers per game, according to data from Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch. Nonetheless, the matchup between the Bucks-Thunder was the largest regular-season audience of the year excluding the Opening Night matchup between the New York Knicks and Boston Celtics, which averaged 3.01 million viewers. Both matchups between the Bucks and Thunder last year aired on NBA TV and averaged under 400,000 viewers.
Semifinal games within the Emirates NBA Cup also registered declines, with the showdown between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets averaging 1.89 million viewers on ABC. Viewership was down 13% from the Western Conference semifinal game last year, and the 1.1 rating represented a 15% diminution from that time as well. Earlier in the day, the Eastern Conference game between the Milwaukee Bucks and Atlanta Hawks averaged 1 million viewers, indicative of a 37% decline. This game was up against the annual Army-Navy matchup on CBS, which attained its strongest viewership in 35 years.
Adam Silver, commissioner of the NBA, addressed the decline in viewership on the season thus far and mentioned how “cable television viewership is down double digits.” The league recently signed new 11-year media rights deals with The Walt Disney Company, Comcast and Amazon reportedly worth a total of $77 billion.
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