Nashville, Tenn. – Nashville, Tenn. (AP) – NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Tuesday that television classifications on the first weekend of the playoffs were the best that the League has seen in approximately a quarter of a century.
Speaking at the World Sports Congress of the CAA presented by the Sports Business Journal about a variety of songs, Silver seemed particularly satisfied with the qualifications of the first eight games, four on Saturday, four more on Sunday.
“The better qualified opening weekend in 25 years … So the numbers are fantastic,” Silver said before the NBA published the official grades.
The League said the Eight games During the weekend, he averaged 4.4 million viewers, the highest average in 25 years and an increase of 17% during the weekend of the playoffs last season.
ESPN added that it was the most watched opening weekend on its platforms, with almost 6.7 million people on average watching the Boston-Orendo game on Sunday in ABC and a peak of just over 8 million for that game.
Silver said that what really excites him to a digital world is the ability to reach fans in several ways.
“I say about Manning’s house but steroids,” said Silver. “Essentially unlimited numbers of alternative channels.”
The NBA recognized that the qualifications had a slow beginning this season, which partly attributed to a world series between two huge media markets, New York and Los Angeles, and additional attention was paid to the presidential elections.
The numbers increased throughout the season and Silver recently said that the League fell only around 2% year after year in the last weeks of the regular season.
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The AP basketball writer, Tim Reynolds in Miami, contributed to this report.
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