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- NBA recorded 6.9bn video views on social channels following restart
- Finals account for 1bn of total figure, including 61m on YouTube
- TV ratings for Lakers-Heat series were down 51% compared to last year’s finals
The 2019/20 National Basketball Association (NBA) season delivered new digital media records for the league despite a dip in television ratings, according to data cited by Front Office Sports.
The sports business website reports that total video views across the league’s digital platforms were up 17 per cent compared to last season to reach 20 billion.
Those figures were bolstered by the NBA’s restart as the league recorded 6.9 billion video views on its social channels following its return on 30th July inside the Orlando bubble, including 2.6 billion on Instagram.
There were one billion video views across all NBA digital platforms during the NBA finals, which saw the Los Angeles Lakers secure their 17th championship with a 4-2 series win over the Miami Heat.
YouTube, meanwhile, delivered 321 million views of NBA content during the postseason, with 61 million coming during the finals.
The digital media figures will be welcome news for the NBA following the well-documented drop in its TV viewership during its return to play.
This year’s finals, which concluded on 11th October, averaged 7.5 million viewers on Disney-owned ABC, marking a 51 per cent decline on the 2019 series between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors.
The drop is in part due to the backlog of sporting events in the US as a result of the health crisis, which also led to audience declines for the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Stanley Cup finals and the Kentucky Derby horse race.
NBA recorded 6.9bn video views on social channels following restart
Finals account for 1bn of total figure, including 61m on YouTube
TV ratings for Lakers-Heat series were down 51% compared to last year’s finals
The 2019/20 National Basketball Association (NBA) season delivered new digital media records for the league despite a dip in television ratings, according to data cited by Front Office Sports.
The sports business website reports that total video views across the league’s digital platforms were up 17 per cent compared to last season to reach 20 billion.
Those figures were bolstered by the NBA’s restart as the league recorded 6.9 billion video views on its social channels following its return on 30th July inside the Orlando bubble, including 2.6 billion on Instagram.
There were one billion video views across all NBA digital platforms during the NBA finals, which saw the Los Angeles Lakers secure their 17th championship with a 4-2 series win over the Miami Heat.
YouTube, meanwhile, delivered 321 million views of NBA content during the postseason, with 61 million coming during the finals.
The digital media figures will be welcome news for the NBA following the well-documented drop in its TV viewership during its return to play.
This year’s finals, which concluded on 11th October, averaged 7.5 million viewers on Disney-owned ABC, marking a 51 per cent decline on the 2019 series between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors.
The drop is in part due to the backlog of sporting events in the US as a result of the health crisis, which also led to audience declines for the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Stanley Cup finals and the Kentucky Derby horse race.
