Game 5 garners highest ratings since Game 5 of 1998 Finals
NBA Finals Game 5 on ABC — the Golden State Warriors defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers to win the NBA championship — generated a 16.0 metered market rating, making it the highest-rated NBA Finals Game 5 since 1998, according to Nielsen. The ABC broadcast peaked with an 18.8 rating from 11:30-11:45 p.m. ET. The Game 5 rating was up 13 percent from Game 5 in both 2016 and 2015.
Additionally, last night’s Game 5 was the most-streamed NBA Finals Game 5 ever and the second-most streamed NBA game ever. It generated an average minute streaming audience of 537,000 viewers, with 2,144,200 unique viewers and 92,377,200 total minutes streamed. The only NBA game to have generated a larger streaming audience was Game 7 in 2016.
The NBA Finals on ABC is expected to win the night across all of television for the 60th consecutive time. In the San Francisco-Oakland market, the Game 5 broadcast delivered a 39.6 metered market rating and in the Cleveland market it generated a 37.1 rating. The other top local markets include: Columbus (23.3); Sacramento (21.2); Atlanta (21.0); Miami (20.6); Memphis (20.1); Los Angeles (19.1); Chicago (18.6); Richmond (17.7).
ESPN will exclusively televise the 2017 NBA Draft presented by State Farm on Thursday, June 22, at 7 p.m. ET.
