The return of the NBA to NBC after nearly a quarter century surpassed advertisers’ lofty expectations, as Tuesday night’s showcase put up the biggest numbers for a tipoff doubleheader since 2010.
According to Nielsen ratings data, NBC’s opening salvo of Rockets-Thunder/Warriors-Lakers averaged 5.61 million linear TV and streaming viewers, with the audience peaking at 7.1 million at the end of the first game. The NBA season started with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the defending champs eking out a 125-124 win over Kevin Durant’s squad in double overtime; the complete contest averaged 5.85 million viewers across NBC and Peacock.
The West Coast nightcap averaged 5.11 million viewers. All told, streaming accounted for approximately 18% of the NBA’s Tuesday night impressions.
Media buyers had anticipated a turnout of around 5 million viewers for NBC’s two-fer. By way of comparison, TNT, the cable channel NBC replaced as an NBA rights partner, averaged 1.25 million viewers per game over the course of the 2024-25 season, while fellow broadcaster ABC last year grew its audience by 10% with an average draw of 2.68 million viewers per window.
Last year’s analogous doubleheader averaged just shy of 3 million viewers on TNT, which translates to an 87% lift for NBC’s coverage. While it’s worth noting that Nielsen upgraded its ratings methodology in September, the tinkering with the currency data accounted for just a fraction of that huge year-over-year boost. (Broadly speaking, live sports have enjoyed a 5% lift care of the new Big Data + Panel scheme.)
NBC’s deliveries also topped the TV turnout for ABC/ESPN’s Christmas Day marathon, which averaged 5.25 million viewers across five games, making it the league’s most-viewed holiday spree since 2019. The only standalone Yuletide game that put up bigger numbers than the Thunder’s opening win was the primetime Lakers-Warriors game, which averaged 7.91 million viewers.
NBC agreed to shell out $2.5 billion in each year of its 11-year NBA pact, and while a return on that investment will be a long time in coming, Tuesday night’s doubleheader underscored why the league has placed a premium on getting more games out in front of a broadcast TV audience. Under the new deal, approximately 50 of NBC’s 100 regular-season contests will air on its flagship network, with the other half set to stream on Peacock.