Toronto Raptors Are Setting Canadian Viewing Records For NBA

The debut of the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Finals debut gave the team its third Canadian television audience record for in two weeks.

Toronto’s 118-109 win over the visiting Golden State Warriors on May 30 attracted an average audience of 3.3 million viewers on Sportsnet, a record for an NBA game in Canada.

That topped the previous record of 3.1 million, set May 25 in the deciding game of the Eastern Conference final between the Raptors and the Milwaukee Bucks.

In the U.S., the series opener on ABC had a 10.1 overnight rating, the lowest for Game 1 of a title series in a decade.

It is the first time in nine years that the finals have lacked the star power of  LeBron James.

It’s also the first NBA Finals since 2014 that doesn’t feature the league’s top two teams by TV ratings.

Before the finals, TV audiences for this year’s playoffs were down14%. Across 76 telecasts on ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV, games averaged 3.95 million viewers, compared to 4.61 million viewers over 78 games through the same point last year.

“Put aside perception, there is the actuality of the ratings,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Friday. “Of course, I pay a lot of attention to those. I also pay a lot of attention to the numbers in Canada, where we set an all-time record for viewership. In the U.S., I recognize it’s a changing television marketplace. We knew we would be down a bit by virtue of both not having two U.S. markets and we’ve come off eight years of having LeBron James in the finals.”

“I’m not overly concerned,” Silver said about the current numbers. “But I’m certainly paying attention to it.”

Last night’s game was on TSN in Canada.