{"id":236686,"date":"2025-10-24T04:10:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T04:10:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236686\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T04:10:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T04:10:10","slug":"nba-2025-26-opener-on-nbc-scores-big-tv-ratings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/236686\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA 2025-26 Opener on NBC Scores Big TV Ratings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe NBA<\/a>\u2019s ballyhooed return to NBC<\/a> brought in a sizable audience \u2014\u00a0the most for the league\u2019s season opener in 15 years.<\/p>\n

\n\tA doubleheader on Tuesday averaged 5.6 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, based on Nielsen\u2019s big data plus panel ratings and internal streaming figures. That figure is inclusive of both games, with the later contest between the Los Angeles Lakers and Golden State Warriors stretching well past midnight ET.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe 5.6 million cross-platform viewers are the most for the NBA\u2019s season tipoff since 2010 (excluding the 2011 season, which began on Christmas Day after an owner lockout), which averaged 5.7 million viewers on TNT and featured LeBron James\u2019 first game with the Miami Heat. Last year\u2019s tipoff doubleheader averaged 2.95 million viewers on TNT (under a different Nielsen measurement system that didn\u2019t include the big data component).<\/p>\n

\n\tTuesday\u2019s opening game between the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder and Houston Rockets averaged 5.9 million cross-platform viewers. It peaked with 7.1 million viewers from 10:45-11 p.m. ET as the game went into double overtime. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe Lakers-Warriors game drew 5.1 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, measured from when it was joined in progress at 11:02 p.m. ET through 12:42 a.m.<\/p>\n

\n\tPeacock\u2019s share of the full audience for the night was 1 million viewers, a little under 18 percent of the total. NBC drew 4.6 million for the doubleheader. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe NBA\u2019s return to NBC is part of an 11-year, $76 billion rights package<\/a> spread across ESPN\/ABC, NBC\/Peacock and Amazon\u2019s Prime Video. NBC will air primetime games on Tuesdays throughout the season, and Sundays after its NFL commitments end, and Peacock will have streaming-exclusive games on Monday nights. <\/p>\n

\n\tOutside of the playoffs and the league\u2019s Christmas showcase games, the NBA hasn\u2019t had a very big primetime footprint on network TV in recent years. ABC has broadcast a slate of Saturday night games for several seasons, typically between January and March. Last season, ABC aired eight contests (including the final of the in-season NBA Cup tournament in December) that averaged about 2.8 million viewers. All nationally televised NBA games on ABC, ESPN and TNT averaged 1.53 million viewers in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe NBC\/Peacock ratings are a welcome bit of good news for the NBA on a day when the league is also facing down a potential gambling scandal. Miami Heat player Terry Rozier arrested Wednesday in a probe into possible illegal betting on games, while Portland Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups was arrested in a related investigation into high-stakes and allegedly rigged poker games run by organized crime families. Former player and assistant coach Damon Jones was arrested in relation to both schemes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA\u2019s ballyhooed return to NBC brought in a sizable audience \u2014\u00a0the most for the league\u2019s season opener…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":236687,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,6333,85,2657],"class_list":{"0":"post-236686","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-nbc","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-tv-ratings"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=236686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236686\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/236687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=236686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=236686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=236686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}