Awful Announcing
The average audience of 6.9 million viewers (English and French) here broke a lot of Canadian sports viewership marks, and even beat the Canadian audience for The Big Bang Theory's series finale.
This year's NBA Finals continues to not produce great U.S. numbers.
The Western Conference Finals didn't look great from a market standpoint, but wound up being a ratings win for ESPN even with only four games.
A number of large market teams saw declines this season.
While 15 of the 28 RSNs considered in a Sports Business Journal analysis are up from last year, there's still an average audience drop thanks to some big losses.
It's been the early half of doubleheaders that's been hit particularly hard, and LeBron being in the West is a factor there.
The game was the highest-rated of the season on any network.
The NBA is one a roll.
Opening-round games averaged 3.15 million viewers across the five networks that aired them nationally.
LeBron in a seventh game resulted in a monster overnight rating.
In the NBA, the Warriors and Cavs led the way, while the Timberwolves posted the biggest growth. In the NHL, the Penguins and Sabres topped the ratings, with the Predators posting the largest growth.
So far, so good for both the NBA and NHL.
After a down year in 2016-17, viewership for the NBA's marquee games was back up this season.
There are plenty of ratings concerns ahead of the NBA playoffs, especially around the absence of all three of the biggest TV markets.
