Despite a small rise in viewers last weekend, the NBA playoffs are still sinking in the ratings, according to the numbers.
To date, 27 of the 32 NBA playoff TV schedules have fallen in the ratings and viewership, and 24 have multi-year lows, according to Sports Media Watch.
For instance, Sunday’s Celtic-Pacers Game 4 earned a .4 Nielsen rating with 3.84 million viewers, which was down a bit over last year’s 2.5 rating.
But other games were worse.
The Blazers-Thunder Game 4 was down 38 percent over last year’s game, the Raptors-Magic game was down 20 percent in the ratings, the Rockets-Jazz Game 3 was down 8 percent, the Nuggets-Spurs Game 4 slipped 8 percent, and the Rockets-Jazz Game 4 lost 24 percent in the ratings.
As the site reported, “Sunday’s Warriors-Clippers Game 4 was one of the few exceptions, scoring a 3.8 rating and 6.29 million viewers on ABC — up 9% in ratings and 15% in viewership from last year (Warriors-Spurs: 3.5, 5.46M), but down a tick and 1% respectively from 2017 (Rockets-Thunder: 3.9, 6.37M).
“Golden State’s win delivered the largest audience, topping the previous highs set by Game 1 of the series a week earlier (3.0, 4.83M),” SMW added.
Of the six playoff games that actually posted an increase in ratings, four aired on ABC, the site said.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston.