NEW YORK — The numbers are in and the NBA says the first year of its new television deals was a hit.
The league released figures for the regular season on Wednesday that showed 170 million people in the U.S. watched NBA games on the league’s four primary broadcast platforms: ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and NBA TV.
These figures are the league’s best in 24 years and represent an 86% increase over the previous season, the NBA said.
Prime Video was part of the NBA’s television rights package for the first time this season, and NBC/Peacock returned for the first time in a generation. The league signed a new 11-year, more than $76 billion media rights deal through 2024, which began earlier this season.
Other viewership highlights:
• Average viewership for NBA games on ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and NBA TV was the highest in 13 years, up 35% from last season.
• A total of 57 broadcasts reached an average of 2 million viewers, the highest since 2011–12.
• People watched more than 920 million hours of NBA games, up 25% from last season and the most since 2011-12.
• According to Videokites, the NBA’s social media channels generated a record 228 billion views. This is 13% more than the previous season.
• Attendance at NBA arenas over the past three seasons has been higher than any other three seasons in league history.
• Viewership for NBA Cup Group Play games increased 90%.
• The audience for the All-Star Game on NBC, averaging 8.8 million viewers, was the largest for the league’s midseason showcase event since 2011.
