• by Wayne Friedman , December 12, 2023

The NBA’s first ever “In-Season Tournament’ final for its inaugural “NBA Cup” earned 4.58 million Nielsen-measured viewers on ABC/ESPN2 on Saturday -- in which the Los Angeles Lakers were crowned champions, defeating the Indiana Pacers.

Overall viewership for the tournament -- which took place for all teams mostly in the month of November -- witnessed a 26% boost on ESPN and TNT to average 1.52 million.

The tournament games airing on Tuesdays and Fridays-- which also counted toward the regular-season standings -- were conceived to boost viewership/awareness of teams and competition for early season play -- typically much lower than late season spring regular season and for the playoffs.

For the entire 2022/23 NBA season, TV viewership for regular-season games averaged 1.59 million Nielsen-measured viewers across ABC, ESPN and TNT -- a slight decline versus the previous year.

In terms of advertising, all NBA games (ABC, ESPN, TNT)  from November 3 through December 9, had an estimated national TV advertising spend 26% higher from a year ago to $100.97 million, according to EDO Ad EnGage --- this from 4.414 ad airings, yielding 5.4 billion impressions.

A year ago, national TV ad spend was $80.11 million -- 3,539 advertisers airings, and 3.9 billion impressions.