While the NFL is enduring a ratings decline for the second consecutive season, the NBA is enjoying a resurgent year as national broadcasters ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV are seeing a 32 percent ratings improvement so far, according to Nielsen.
The NBA’s three national broadcast partners’ are averaging 1.4 million viewers per game, which marks the highest start to a season since the 2010-11 season – LeBron James’s first with the Miami Heat.
James is back with the Cleveland Cavaliers now, and he remains one of the league’s top draws.
In fact, the Cavs’ season opener against the Boston Celtics on TNT averaged 5.6 million viewers, 3.2 million of whom came from the coveted 18-49 demo, according to Ad Age .
ABC’s coverage of the Cavs-Warriors five-game series generated an average of 20.4 million fans and a 7.4 rating in the 18-49 demo, making it the most-watched NBA Finals in 19 years
The popular Golden State Warriors won their second NBA title in three years last June
The November 22 matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Oklahoma City Thunder did even better, according to USA Today, drawing 3.23 million viewers and a 1.2 rating in the 18-49 demo – ESPN’s highest-rated regular-season NBA broadcast since 2016, when the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks drew 3.69 million viewers and a 1.4 rating in that demo on Christmas Day.
ESPN’s November 22 broadcast benefitted from Warriors’ forward Kevin Durant’s return to Oklahoma City, where he won the NBA’s MVP award in 2014, not to mention the Thunder’s off-season acquisitions of All-Stars Carmelo Anthony and Paul George.
But it’s not only elite players moving to new teams that’s attracting fans.
After struggling in recent years, franchises in major markets like the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers are now playoff contenders. In fact, the 76ers have gone from averaging 14,881 fans over the 2015-16 season to ranking second in the NBA with 20,623 fans per home game this year.
Kyrie Irving’s (No. 11) arrival in Boston has helped the Celtics ascend to first in the East
The Oklahoma City Thunder have struggled to gel this season, but All-Star additions Carmelo Anthony (No. 7) and Paul George (No. 13) have helped reigning MVP Russell Westbrook (No. 0) attract television audiences. Their November 22 game against Golden State and former Thunder star Kevin Durant attracted 3.23 million viewers in the 18-49 demo
And even though the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers each have losing records, they’re still a reliable draw at the box office, ranking 10th and 11th in home attendance, respectively.
That’s a tremendous sign for broadcasters ESPN and TNT, which pay the NBA a combined $2.7 billion per season.
That price may have been too steep for ESPN, which has laid of hundreds of employees in recent months, but the network has seen a bigger ratings spike than anyone.
Over its first 20 games of the season, ESPN has averaged 1.84 million viewers per broadcast, which is up 18 percent over the 1.56 million average viewers over the same time period in 2016-17. More importantly, ESPN has seen a 33 percent rise in the 18-49 demo, according to Ad Age.
TNT has seen a 15 percent ratings boost this season.
NBA TV, which has 47.6 million subscribers and is operated by Turner, has averaged 392,000 viewers per broadcast in the 18-49 demo.
Unlike the NFL, where controversial protests have taken center stage, the NBA remains untouched by the controversy. NBA players are required to stand for the national anthem
This trend is a continuance of the 2017 NBA Finals, when ABC’s coverage of the Cavs-Warriors five-game series generated an average of 20.4 million fans and a 7.4 rating in the 18-49 demo, making it the most-watched NBA Finals in 19 years.
Another good sign for the NBA, according to AdAge, is that the average NBA viewer is just 42 years old. For comparison’s sake, the average NFL television viewer is 50 while Major League Baseball’s is 57.
Of course, the NBA has not experienced the same controversial protests that the NFL is currently going through, in part because NBA players are actually required to stand for the anthem, unlike their football counterparts.
NFL players have been trying to raise awareness of inequality and police brutality against minorities since the 2016 preseason by sitting and kneeling during the national anthem. In response, many football fans have criticized the NFL while threatening to boycott the league. Even President Donald Trump referred to protesting NFL players as ‘sons of b******’ during a September speech in Alabama.
Over that time, the league has seen national ratings decline from 16.5 average viewers last year to just 15 million this season, according to data compiled by RBC Capital Markets and reported by Business Insider.
The San Diego Chargers have the NFL’s smallest stadium – the StubHub Center – but they’ve still struggled to fill it, averaging a legue-worst 151,864 fans a game
But while Trump and critical fans will point to the controversial protests as the main reason for the NFL’s declining ratings, RBC Capital Markets found that the league’s audience has been slowly declining since 2013.
Besides, the NFL’s ratings downtick is just a small part of an overall trend across the television industry.
Fox’s primetime viewership was down 20 percent through the first month of the new television season, according to Nielsen data, while ABC (11 percent), CBS (6 percent), and NBC (four percent) have all seen a decline as well.
Regardless of the cause of the NFL’s ratings conundrum, the same problem does not seem to be affecting the NBA. Professional football may still generate more viewers on a per-game basis, but given the fact that every NBA team plays 82 regular season games as opposed to just 16 for NFL teams, the NBA may soon become America’s most-watched professional sports league.
Seattle Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett (No. 72) protests inequality and police brutality against minorities by sitting during the national anthem. While President Donald Trump has pointed to the controversial protests as the main reason for the NFL’s declining ratings, RBC Capital Markets found that the league’s audience has been declining since 2013