Stronger Matchups Help NBA To Its Best First-Round Playoff Viewership Since '14

The NBA wasted no time in rebounding from a drop in regular-season audience, as viewership for the first round of the playoffs this year was at its best level since '14, with each network seeing individual gains. For 43 games across ABC, TNT, ESPN, ESPN2 and NBA TV (excluding any simulcast games on ESPNews or ESPNU), the NBA First Round averaged 3.15 million viewers, marking the best figure since '14 (3.47 million viewers), when five series went to a Game 7. This year, which had strong matchups, also is up 12% from last season's 2.8 million viewers in the first round, which was plagued by several series being non-competitive and many games having blowout scores (28 games decided by 10 or more points, including 13 by 20 or more and five by 30 or more). There was only one Game 7 this year versus two last season in the first round. ABC this year (5.45 million viewers) had its best first round viewership since '11 (5.64 million viewers), despite only having one Warriors game compared to two last year.

CABLE GUYS: On cable, TNT had its best first round since '14. The net's average of 3.42 million viewers was up 13% from last year. First-round NBA games also delivered TNT a primetime win among all cable nets on nine nights. ESPN averaged 3.04 million viewers in the first round, also its best mark since '14 (3.47 million). ESPN won the night among all cable nets four times during the first round. Streaming on WatchESPN for both ABC and ESPN games also was up over 30% from last season's first round. On NBA TV, first-round games averaged 454,000 viewers, up 2%. All first-round games on cable TV also aired on local RSNs. The NBA also set a first-round record for social media interactions (3.6 billion), which is up 5% from last season.