{"id":396758,"date":"2026-01-08T19:44:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T19:44:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/396758\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T19:44:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T19:44:08","slug":"espns-regular-season-nba-games-averaging-2-6-million-viewers-through-christmas-2nd-ever-best-start-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/396758\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN\u2019s regular-season NBA games averaging 2.6 million viewers through Christmas, 2nd-ever best start \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) \u2014 ESPN has had one of its most-viewed starts to the NBA regular season since it started to carry games in 2002.<\/p>\n

According to the network and Nielsen, ESPN averaged 2.6 million viewers in its first 21 games through Christmas, a 35% increase from last season and the second most-watched in a full season. The numbers for this season only trail 2010-11.<\/p>\n

Viewership is up 47% among women and 37% among Hispanic audiences. This is the first year of the NBA\u2019s 11-year media rights deal with ESPN, NBC and Prime Video.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA New York Knicks fan reacts during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025, in New York. (AP Photo\/Yuki Iwamura)<\/p>\n

ESPN\u2019s NBA studio shows have also experienced increased viewership. \u201cInside the NBA\u201d is averaging 1.2 million in its first season on ESPN, up 135% compared to last year\u2019s regular-season average on TNT. The Christmas Day edition averaged 5.1 million, the show\u2019s most-watched regular season audience.<\/p>\n

The Dec. 25 edition was also on ABC with the crew on for all five games throughout the day and prime time.<\/p>\n

\u201cNBA Today,\u201d ESPN\u2019s weekday studio show, is averaging 361,000, a 26% increase from this time last year.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/nba<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BRISTOL, Conn. (AP) \u2014 ESPN has had one of its most-viewed starts to the NBA regular season since…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396759,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-396758","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396758\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}