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NBA Playoff Viewership Needs Finals Boost To Close Gap On Recent Postseason Averages

The NBA Playoffs are averaging 3.95 million viewers per game to date, marking the league’s lowest figure headed into the Finals in at least a decade. That figure comes despite a first round that was the NBA’s best since ’14. The league was still in the black after the Conference Semifinals, but a pair of non-competitive Conference Finals matchups (the Warriors swept the Spurs, while the Cavaliers beat the Celtics in five games) could not keep pace with the record Conference Finals figures from last season. This year was only the second time in the past decade that the Conference Finals saw only nine telecasts. However, a highly-anticipated rubber match between the Cavaliers and Warriors could help the NBA close the gap on recent postseasons. The last two years mark ABC's most-viewed NBA Finals since acquiring league rights prior beginning with the '02-03 season, with last year’s Cavs-Warriors matchup the most-viewed NBA Finals since Michael Jordan's last title in ’98. Across ABC, TNT, ESPN, NBA TV and ESPN2, the NBA Playoffs this year are down 5% headed into the Finals, compared to 4.18 million viewers last year. Two years ago, the league was averaging 4.06 million viewers headed into the Finals.

COAST TO COAST: The Warriors’ sweep of the Spurs marked the least-viewed Western Conference Finals since ’13, when the Spurs swept the Grizzlies. ABC/ESPN averaged 6.51 million viewers for the sweep this postseason, up from 4.9 million viewers for that sweep in ’13. ABC/ESPN also was up compared to 5.64 million viewers for the six-game Cavs-Raptors Eastern Conference Finals last year. Meanwhile, TNT’s coverage of the five-game Cavs-Celtics ECF this year averaged 6.29 million viewers. While that was up from Cavs-Raptors last year, it was down from 6.77 million viewers for the Cavs’ sweep of the Raptors in the ’14 ECF. That was LeBron James’ first season back in Cleveland. TNT also secured a primetime win during each night of the ECF this year, part of 22 primetime wins for the net during the ’17 Playoffs. For the NBA Playoffs to date on all networks, games have won 32 of 35 nights.

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