Every game in this year's Finals so far has set a new Canadian NBA ratings recordNBAE/GETTY IMAGES
Sportsnet's telecast of Monday's Warriors-Raptors NBA Finals Game 5 "set another Canadian record for an NBA game" with an average of 6.4 million viewers, according to the CP. Audience levels peaked at 8.5 million at 11:32pm ET, as the game was "coming down to the wire." The numbers include "viewers on Sportsnet and Citytv, but does not include people watching the American feed." Every game in this year's Finals so far has "set a new Canadian NBA ratings record." The reported numbers are "now surpassing" the Blue Jays’ playoff levels. Indians-Blue Jays Game 6 of the '15 ALCS had an average audience of 5.12 million, while Blue Jays-Orioles in the '16 AL Wild Card drew 4.02 million on Sportsnet. Traditionally, the Raptors’ TV numbers are "well behind the Blue Jays" (CP, 6/11).
MISSING OUT: The CP's David Friend noted several thousand Bell Fibe customers "were left hanging in the pivotal last moments" of Game 5 "when their TV signals went dark." A technical glitch "caused them to miss the last 30 seconds" of the game. Bell confirmed that "'several thousand customers' experienced a drop in Bell Fibe service on Monday night." The company said that the problem was "tied to a 'hardware malfunction' that knocked out all of the TV channels for about 10 minutes" (CP, 6/11).
BACK STATESIDE: ABC drew 18.2 million viewers for Game 5, down 26% from Warriors-Cavaliers Game 5 two years ago (24.5 million). It was also down from Warriors-Cavs during the ’16 and ’15 NBA Finals, but up from the clinching Spurs-Heat Game 5 on Sunday night in ’14 (17.9 million). Heading into Game 6 tomorrow night, the NBA Playoffs overall are down 13% from last year (Austin Karp, THE DAILY).
