The Golden State Warriors are meeting the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA Finals again. This will mark the first time the same two teams have vied for a championship for a fourth consecutive season among the big four sports in North America — the NBA, NFL, MLB and the NHL.
Will the rivalry generate a fourth consecutive round of viewership growth for the NBA and Walt Disney Co.'s ABC (US)? Or will "Golden State-Cleveland IV," despite the presence of Stephen Curry and last year’s Finals MVP Kevin Durant battling the inimitable LeBron James, whose Cavaliers are looking to even matters at two titles apiece, take an audience hit, owing to viewer fatigue?
Golden State is a prohibitive favorite, and the perception is it will easily dispatch Cleveland. Interest in the NBA playoffs to date, culminating with major audience advances during the conference finals, though, has been the strongest since early this decade. ABC could benefit from that viewer momentum as fans tune in Game 1 on May 31 from Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., and if the series extends to a sixth and seventh game. Conversely, should the Warriors blow out the Cavaliers in the first couple of contests, viewers may focus their attention elsewhere.
Capped by the second-largest NBA audience in cable TV history with Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals matching Golden State and Houston, Turner Broadcasting System Inc.'s TNT (US) averaged 4.9 million viewers over 42 games, according to data from Nielsen Holdings. That was the most for the network with the NBA’s postseason since 2011.
The May 28 Golden State-Houston contest averaged 14.8 million viewers to stand as the most-watched game of the 2018 NBA playoffs to date and second in the annals of cable TV history with the pro basketball league behind the 16.0 million watchers, who saw the Warriors advance over Oklahoma City in Game 7 of the 2016 Western Conference Finals.
Overall, TNT’s coverage of the Western Conference Finals averaged 9.4 million viewers, up 51% over the 2017 Eastern Conference Finals between Cleveland-Boston on its air (under the national rights deal, TNT and ESPN/ABC alternate coverage of the conference finals year to year) and a 45% jump from last year’s Western Conference Finals in which Golden State defeated San Antonio.
For its part, ESPN (US) posted up its second-largest NBA audience since it began televising league action in 2003, as Cleveland’s Game 7 win over Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals on May 27 averaged 13.31 million viewers, according to Nielsen. That only trailed the 13.35 million who watched Game 7 of the Heat-Celtics Eastern Conference Finals in 2012.
ESPN officials expect the most recent contest to become its most-watched NBA game ever when streaming and out-of-home viewing metrics are calculated.
ESPN averaged 8.45 million viewers with its coverage of the 2018 Eastern Conference Finals, a 34% jump from the 2017 matchup between Cleveland and Boston, and a 29% gain from last year’s Western Conference Finals series between the Warriors and Spurs that ran on ESPN.
All told, ESPN averaged 5.1 million viewers across its 19-game 2018 NBA playoff slate, 30% higher than in 2017 and the second most behind the 6.2 million during the 2012 postseason.
Last year, Golden State’s five-game triumph over Cleveland in the NBA Finals garnered 20.8 million watchers, including an average streaming minute audience of 434,000. That was the most for the pro hoops league marquee showdown since NBC (US) tallied a 29.0 million average in 1998, with the last of the six titles for the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls, which topped Utah in six games.
The 2017 Finals’ delivery represented a 1% uptick from the 20.6 million average for the 2016 championship series. From a TV-only perspective, the 2016 series averaged 20.2 million watchers.
The first Finals meeting between the clubs in 2015 — the Warriors won in six — averaged 19.9 million viewers.
