Television viewership is up nearly one-third for the NBA playoffs, and the conference finals are off to a strong start.

Games in the first two rounds averaged an audience of 4.92 million people, compared with 3.74 million last year. The conference semifinals averaged 6.14 million viewers, a 28 percent increase from 2010.

Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals was watched by 11.1 million people, the most for an NBA game on cable. The previous record of 10.8 million was for Michael Jordan’s last All-Star Game in 2003, when the population was smaller.