Final NBA Game Heats Up High Ratings

ABC scored the second-highest-rated basketball game in its history with game seven of the NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Miami Heat.

The game, in which the Heat bested the Spurs to become champions, earned a Nielsen preliminary 17.7 household rating. The game peaked in the 15 minutes of the broadcast, earning a 22.6 rating between 11:30 p.m. and 11:45 p.m. EST.

In local markets, the game recorded a 44.2 rating in Miami -- the highest-ever-rated NBA game in the market -- while San Antonio got to a 46.4.
 
Overall, the highly competitive seven-game series averaged a 12.4 household rating, 5% higher than the 11.8 of a year ago.

Digital media also scored well. ESPN3, ABC’s sister digital media platform, tallied 32 million total minutes and an average minute audience of 189,000 across all digital devices -- computers, smartphones, tablets, Xbox and Apple TV.  

All ESPN digital platforms generated over 115 million total minutes for game seven, the largest single day of the NBA Playoffs. ESPN.com logged an average minute audience of 25,000 -- up 64% from the earlier final games.

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