NBA TV Ratings Are Down 5%. NBC May Reverse That Trend Next Year

The NBA’s TV ratings have been a central topic of conversation all season long as the league has faced declining viewership numbers.

But after a slow first few months of the 2024–2025 season with double-digit percentage declines, the league has partially recovered. Entering the second half of the season, the NBA is averaging 1.76 million viewers across ESPN and TNT platforms, a 5% year-over-year decline, according to Nielsen.

Declining TV viewership is not exclusive to the NBA. The NHL is down 11% this year—despite a widely successful 4 Nations Face-Off—and even the NFL was hit with a 2% dip this year. The wide trend can be attributed to the decline in overall cable subscribers, which is down 8% year over year, according to Nielsen.

For all the hand-wringing about the NBA, its social media numbers continue to surge. The league’s content across social media has generated 83.5 billion views this year, up 41% from last year, per Videocites.

However, that doesn’t change the fact that the league needs to curb its ratings decline. An easy solution may just come next season when the league’s 11-year, $7.7 billion media-rights deal kicks in. Warner Bros. Discovery will lose broadcasting rights to the NBA, as NBC and Amazon Prime Video join ESPN.

NBA games on ESPN platforms are essentially flat compared to last year, but the 5% overall viewership decline can be attributed to the 11% dip in games on TNT platforms. The big driver for ESPN ratings this year was the Christmas Day slate that was up 87% versus last year but benefited from all five games airing on ABC.

TNT’s cable channels simply do not have the distribution of NBC’s free TV audience. The addition of Peacock, plus the added buzz of a new network, may also help. 

However, the opposite can also be argued with games moving to Prime Video, which will likely see a dip in viewership behind Amazon’s paywall similar to what happened when the NFL moved Thursday Night Football to Amazon.