NBA Return to NBC Achieves Opening Night ratings boost

The NBA made a triumphant return to NBC and Peacock on Tuesday night with an exciting Opening Night doubleheader that captured the attention of basketball fans everywhere. According to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, the games averaged a combined 5.61 million viewers, the highest audience for a traditional season-opening slate since 2010. In case you forgot, that was the same year LeBron James debuted with the Miami Heat.

With an additional 1.0 million viewers streaming the games, the Nielsen figure of 5.61 million would be around 4.6 million. It’s worth noting that Nielsen has tweaked its methods recently to account for out-of-home viewing and new data sources like set-top boxes and smart TVs. NBC is unique among major networks in providing a combined viewership total spanning both Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, providing valuable insight into viewer engagement.

While the significant 90% increase in viewership over last year can’t be entirely explained by the methodological changes, they likely play a part in the surge. The thrilling Rockets-Thunder double-overtime game took the top spot with an average of 5.85 million viewers, while Warriors-Lakers pulled in 5.11 million viewers during its NBC airing. Viewership peaked at 7.1 million during the early game’s overtime period at 10:45 PM ET.

This year marked the NBA’s return to NBC for the first time since the 2002 NBA Finals, bringing the action back to broadcast television after almost two decades. Prior to this, the last time NBA season openers were on live broadcast TV was back in the early 1980s with CBS. And to put it into perspective, last year’s most-watched regular-season game was Lakers vs. Celtics on ABC, drawing 4.6 million viewers.

The buzz around this year’s Opening Night is real and has set a new standard for viewership, making it a memorable return for NBA action on NBC and Peacock.