If you’re a NBA (and general sports) fan on the East Coast, you’ve probably been dragging over the past week as start times for each game of the NBA Finals have tipped off at 9 p.m. Unless you conked out in front of the TV while watching, staying with those games to the end likely means you turned in close to midnight.
So this must be killing the NBA with young fans, right? Well… this may be a complaint that older sports fans are projecting onto TV viewership as a whole.
According to Sports Business Journal‘s John Ourand, the numbers don’t support that contention. In fact, they just about say the opposite. More young people are watching games later into the night than they have before. Maybe it’s because their parents are asleep and can’t tell them to go to bed. Regardless of the reason, young sports viewers are staying up late, conquering the night and watching these late NBA Finals finishes.
Click over to SBJ for information on the age groups whose viewership is growing in the 11 p.m. hour. Those numbers are pretty intriguing, though maybe an indication that school is out for the summer across the country right now.
Otherwise, ESPN is apparently fortunate that these NBA Finals games are ending before midnight, which appears to be just in time as far as maintaining viewership. Going past 11:30 p.m. and perhaps even past midnight has hurt ratings for the World Series, NCAA Tournament and College Football Playoff championship.
Although if Game 6 happen to go into overtime, viewers might very well stayed tuned in for that to see a potentially great and championship-winning moment for their sports memories. (A Game 7 would start at 8 p.m. ET, since it would be played on Sunday.) But if not, just ask the kids what you missed. The numbers say they stayed up to watch the finish.
