NBA Television Ratings Up 20 Percent

NBA television viewership has increased 20 percent from last season, according to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch.

This is a welcome upturn for the league, which has been struggling mightily in the ratings department since the 2012 Disney bubble — and actually even before that.

“NBA regular season games are averaging 1.61 million viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT so far this season, up 20% from last year and on par with two seasons ago,” Lewis noted.

Pro basketball has historically struggled with viewership in the regular season, especially when it goes to head-to-head with NFL news, a mammoth that tends to bury every other sports league’s shot at drawing a real audience.

And this year, NFL free agency seems more notable than perhaps any other time in history, as you can read about on sister site NFLTradeRumors.co.

Still, the NBA is finally hanging tough with a month to go before the playoffs, which generally offer a ratings boost even in the least-watched regular seasons.

“As the season enters the home stretch, NBA viewership continues to trend double-digits above last year’s abbreviated campaign,” Lewis wrote.