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Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Boston Celtics and the Miami Heat averaged over 6 million viewers and peaked at 6.9 million, according to Nielsen.
It is the most-watched Eastern Conference finals Game 1 since 2018, and a 13% increase from last season.
The strong number comes on the heels of Game 7 between the Celtics and Bucks being the most-watched Eastern Conference semifinal game since 2012.
Via Ben Cafardo/ESPN
Dennis 37 wrote:So no superteams and yet viewership is up. Seems contrary to league marketing philosophy. Teams, rather than individual stars, can attract audiences.
Regarding the audience size, did they include the Canadian audience in the 2019 number? American ratings do not usually include the Canadian viewers.
Ballknowledge wrote:Dennis 37 wrote:So no superteams and yet viewership is up. Seems contrary to league marketing philosophy. Teams, rather than individual stars, can attract audiences.
Regarding the audience size, did they include the Canadian audience in the 2019 number? American ratings do not usually include the Canadian viewers.
All of the ratings reported by the NBA are always American audience only. It’s a big reason why the reported viewership of the 2019 playoffs were low in comparison.
Personally I think it’s good for the league to have both era’s of superteams and balance. I’ve loved these playoffs so far with all of the unpredictability, but without superteams, we would have never had a finals quite like 2016.
