Over the first week of the 2020 NBA Playoffs, ESPN, ABC and TNT averaged 1.875 million television viewers per game, according to data compiled by ShowBuzzDaily. The average excludes games aired on NBATV.
The top rated game was Saturday evening's Game 3 win by the Los Angeles Lakers over the Portland Trial Blazers on ABC, which had 3.828 million viewers. The comparable game from the 2019 Playoffs, Game 1 between the Golden State Warriors and Los Angeles Clippers on Saturday evening on ABC, had 4.826 million viewers.
The 20 percent decrease from 2019 aligns with broader trends in which broadcast television is down 19 percent compared to this time last year.
The 18-49 demographic is down 36 percent across all television compared to last year overall, but that demographic is only down 13 percent for the single game NBA on ABC comparison.
Game 1 between the Lakers and Blazers on Tuesday had 3.446 million viewers, while ABC's coverage of Game 4 between the Clippers and Dallas Mavericks had 3.310 million viewers.
While there were fewer eight games in 2019 over the first seven days of the playoffs due to travel, ratings are down approximately 30 percent overall during that timespan. For the 18-49 demographic, ratings are down 28 percent.