With Several Lopsided Games, Viewing To The 2024 NBA Finals Dropped

Another NBA Finals are in the books as the Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks, in five games. For the Celtics, an original NBA franchise, it was their 18^th championship, breaking a tie with rival Los Angeles Lakers for the most titles in league history. Boston became the sixth different franchise to win the NBA championship in the past six seasons. Jaylen Brown of the Celtics was named MVP of the Finals.

Despite the history making performance, many viewers tuned out. The average audience for the five-game series was 11.31 million, a year-over-year decline of -3% from the 2023 NBA Finals (Denver over Miami) which was also a five-game series. The fifth and deciding Game 5 averaged 12.22 million viewers, a -7% decline compared to last year’s fifth game which had averaged 13.08 million viewers.

Although both Dallas and Boston are among the ten largest TV markets, the series was marred by lopsided victories that limited viewer interest. Ratings success are dependent on two factors; having more viewers and having the viewers watch for an extended period of time. With a number of blowouts viewers, apparently, tuned out.

According to Sports Media Watch, four of the five games had, at one time, a lopsided score. In Game 1 at one point, Boston had held a commanding lead of 29 points. In Game 3 Boston led by as many as 21 points. Also, in the fifth and final game, Boston had led by as many as 26 points. On the other hand, in Game 4, the only contest Boston failed to win, Dallas, at one point, had led by as many as 48 points.

Among the five games, the most watched was Game 2, the only game that was not one-sided. In the second game Boston won by seven points which delivered an average audience of 12.31 million viewers. Game 2 was the most watched NBA telecast of the entire 2023-24 season and the most watched second game of an NBA Finals in five years.

Comparing the audience to other NBA Finals, 2024, was the least watched since the two pandemic-era finals in 2020 and 2021. The 2020 NBA Finals (L.A. Lakers over Miami) played in September-October in A “bubble” near Orlando averaged just 7.66 million viewers. The following year the NBA Finals (Milwaukee over Phoenix) played in July averaged 9.91 million viewers. The only non-COVID NBA Finals lower than this season was in 2007 (San Antonio over Cleveland) which averaged 9.29 million viewers. (In 2007 any out-of-home viewing was not included in ratings.)

NBA FINALS

Average Audience (in millions)

2024 2023

Boston vs. Dallas Denver vs. Miami

Game 1 10.99 Game 1 11.58

Game 2 12.31 Game 2 11.91

Game 3 11.43 Game 3 11.24

Game 4 9.62 Game 4 10.41

Game 5 12.22 Game 5 13.08

Average 11.31 Average 11.64

All games on ABC

Source: Nielsen

Heading into the 2024 NBA Finals, playoff ratings were tracking below the 2023 playoffs. In 2024 the average audience through the first three rounds of the playoffs was 4.1 million viewers, a year-over-year drop-off of 13% (4.7 million). With the NBA Finals included, the entire NBA postseason (including the six-game Play-In Tournament) averaged 4.44 million viewers, a year-over-year drop-off of 10% from last year’s average of 4.95 million viewers. Interest in the NBA postseason was also down this year. According to Taboola, in 2024, the NBA postseason amassed 66 million page views compared to 79 million in 2023.

For the regular season, the national television average audience across all networks averaged 1.09 million viewers, a slight uptick of 1% from the previous season. When NBA TV games are excluded the audience on ABC, ESPN and TNT averaged 1.59 million viewers, the lowest in three years.

The NBA will have an unusually busy offseason. There will be the usual free agent signings, trades and the NBA two-day draft starts on June 26. Also, the Paris Summer Olympics starts on July 26 with the Team USA roster filled with NBA players led by four-time Olympians LeBron James and Kevin Durant. In the 2020 Tokyo games, the U.S. men’s team won their fourth consecutive gold medal.

The most anticipated announcement of the NBA offseason however will be the finalization of a new media rights agreement. Despite a loss in viewership this past season, there are widespread reports the NBA could potentially triple their annual fees of $2.66 billion starting with the 2025-26 season.

A press release from ESPN reported the NBA Finals on ABC had been the top-rated program on all five evenings across all key demographics, most notably among young adults. With a reported 95 advertisers (32 of them first-time) set for the NBA Finals, Disney had little trouble selling out the game to advertisers. Sportico estimates that the in-game ad revenue for the fifth and final contest generated an estimated $155 million in ad revenue for Disney.

This explains why the NBA will get a sizable increase in media rights fees.