• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

With the NBA Finals set to start on Thursday, through the early rounds, the NBA playoffs are up 3% versus average viewers compared to a year ago, according to Nielsen -- to 4.5 million average viewers (from 4.2 million).

This came from airings on ABC, ESPN and TNT (April 15 -- June 1). Games also aired on NBA TV and ESPNU, but those airings are not exclusive and could be subject to blackouts.

Total estimated national TV advertising revenues for the NBA playoffs are nearly the same as a year ago -- slipping 1% to $344.8 million, according to EDO Ad EnGage. 

This came from 12,023 commercial airings and 33.2 billion impressions -- compared to a year ago when ad spend was $348.6 million, with 13,074 airings and 33.2 billion impressions.

A big boost came from the six-game (Indiana Pacers-New York Knicks) Eastern Conference Finals, which averaged 6.96 million viewers -- up 10% versus those conference finals a year ago. 

Game six of the series on TNT/truTV was at 8.1 million viewers -- the most watched NBA game, regular season or playoffs, so far.

The Western Conference Finals -- (the Oklahoma City Thunder vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves) -- had 5.59 million, down 17% versus those finals the previous year (the Dallas Mavericks vs. the Timberwolves) which had 6.74 million.