NBA Houston Rockets Continue To Be Big TV, Streaming Draw For NBA Playoffs In China

The NBA Houston Rockets have been without Yao Ming since the end of the '10-11 season, but the club’s games are still a draw in China. Streaming platform Tencent last week drew 6.7 million video viewers and 18.9 million views for Game 5 of the San Antonio Spurs-Rockets Western Conference semifinals, marking the NBA’s best audience on the platform this season to date. That contest on May 9 easily outdrew Game 6 last Thursday, which saw the Rockets blown out by the Spurs, drawing 5.5 million video viewers and 13.8 million video views. Linear TV viewership also was successful for the Rockets games this postseason. Chinese outlet CCTV averaged 5.53 million viewers for all 10 Rockets games during the postseason, up 8% compared to 5.14 million viewers for the NBA Playoffs on the whole to date. The Spurs-Rockets series on CCTV averaged 5.78 million viewers for six telecasts.