NBA's opening week nets a higher Indian viewership this time around

The average time spent on NBA games by Indian viewers for the opening week this season has gone up by 26%, according to estimates provided by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC). The time spent per NBA game by the average viewer stands at 9 minutes this season.

The Indian broadcasting rights for all the NBA games as well as other programming such as the all-star weekend, NBA talk shows and highlights are currently held by Multi Screen Media (MSM) and the games are telecasted on Sony SIX SD and Sony SIX HD. Among the channels, Sony SIX accumulated 11 million viewers for all the NBA programming over the opening week.

Prasana Krishnan, business head of Sony Six, was upbeat despite the challenge of the timings of the live games, "We are now seeing a clear trend emerging with regard to breakfast viewing of sports driven primarily by the growth of NBA. This was a non-existent segment earlier. We telecast 2 different games back to back every morning has led to this trend. We have also been offering primetime highlights and other content during primetime in case viewers missed the game in the morning. This gives our viewers enough opportunities to catch up and connect with the NBA. All these factors are helping in the growing popularity of this sport."

The highest rated game on the opening week was the Golden State Warriors vs the Houston Rockets game on October 31, which rated at 23 TVTs (Television Viewing in Thousands), which reached almost 0.96 million viewers across India.

Viewers also spent the highest time of 34 minutes overall on the Golden State Warriors vs the Memphis Grizzlies game, which is comparable to the time spent viewing football matches in the evenings.

Sony were understandably upbeat about the viewership increase, "Basketball is among the fastest growing sports In India with a great connect with the younger generation. The interest in the sport has been fueled further by the entry of Sim Bhullar & Satnam Singh into the NBA fold. And we believe that this is just the beginning and expect it to grow further in the future," said Prasana.