The NBA regular season is not off to a hot start.
The opening week of the NBA regular season started strong but fell off during Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night national windows. After TNT increased its opening night viewership by 6% year-over-year on Tuesday, the rest of the week’s NBA windows saw declines.
ESPN’s opening doubleheader on Wednesday averaged 1.6 million viewers, down 42% from the network’s opening games in 2023 that featured the rookie debut of San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama. The comparison to 2022 looks more favorable, with viewership up 5% without the Wemby factor.
The Milwaukee Bucks and Philadelphia 76ers opened ESPN’s 2024 season with 1.71 million viewers, down from 2.55 million viewers for the Boston Celtics and New York Knicks in 2023. The Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Clippers drew 1.52 million viewers, down 49% from last year’s comparable game.
TNT’s good mojo from Tuesday dissipated quickly on Thursday. Viewership for the San Antonio Spurs and Dallas Mavericks declined 29% over last year’s comparable window, capturing an audience of just 1.45 million viewers versus 2.04 million last season.
On Friday, ESPN’s coverage of the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks drew just 830,000 viewers. The game averaged fewer viewers than a Louisville-Boston College football game on ESPN2 that same night. Of course, the game went directly against Game 1 of the World Series between the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. Viewership data for the Phoenix Suns-Los Angeles Lakers nightcap was not immediately available.
No doubt, the NBA would have liked to get off to a better start. But viewership this early in the season is small potatoes. The NBA should be in good shape from a viewership perspective this year after announcing all five Christmas Day games will be simulcast on ABC. That alone should help boost regular season viewership versus last year when only two of five games were simulcast.
