TNT Sports is in the final season broadcasting NBA games in the United States, and the company is coming off a strong week in overall viewership. As it aired its final doubleheader on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, the first game broadcast on TNT and truTV followed the U.S. Presidential Inauguration and preceded the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. The Western Conference matchup featuring the Memphis Grizzlies and Minnesota Timberwolves tipped off just after 2:30 p.m. EST and averaged 671,000 viewers on the cable networks, up 94% from the previous year.
The lead-in game taking place last year with the San Antonio Spurs and Atlanta Hawks had averaged 345,000 viewers, a record-low for the network since the 2009-10 season, according to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch. Two-and-a-half hours later, a rematch of the 2022 NBA Finals between the Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors elicited an average of 1.32 million viewers, which was up 158% from the previous season. The Warriors took part in a game within the comparable window last year against the Grizzlies that averaged 513,000 viewers.
Whereas both Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day games were down from the previous year last season, the matchups within the 2024-25 schedule realized significant gains. Both matchups collectively averaged 973,000 viewers on TNT and truTV, marking the highest figure for the doubleheader in four years. This happened to also coincide with the last time no NFL games were scheduled on the national holiday. The league played its first game on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day in 2022 when the Los Angeles Rams defeated the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL Wild Card Round, averaging 23.2 million viewers across ESPN platforms.
Later in the week, TNT and truTV garnered an audience of 979,000 viewers for the interstate rivalry between the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets, down 1% from the comparable game last season. The second game of the doubleheader with the Philadelphia 76ers visiting the Denver Nuggets averaged 840,000 viewers, a 36% decrease from last season. TNT and truTV broadcast a game between the Florida Panthers and Los Angeles Kings the next day, which averaged 151,000 viewers and fell 36% from the previous year.
As Warner Bros. Discovery completes its final season under a nine-year media rights deal with the NBA, it will continue to broadcast various other leagues within its TNT Sports portfolio. The company has entered into contracts with Unrivaled Basketball, NHL, MLB and the NCAA for its Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, while it has also amassed other broadcast properties such as the French Open, Mountain West Conference football, Big East Conference basketball and NASCAR. The company has agreed to two sublicensing deals with ESPN, one that grants it select College Football Playoff games and another that will permit Inside the NBA to air on ESPN and ABC starting next season.
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