ESPN's NBA Viewership Soars in Early Win for League's $76B Deal

ESPN is touting near-record viewership for the start of the 2025-26 NBA season, providing an early, if complicated, victory for the league’s gargantuan new media rights deal.

• By the numbers: The network's performance marks its second-strongest start to a season ever, trailing only the 2010-11 campaign. The viewership average of 2.6 million viewers represents a 35% jump from last season.

• Numbers with an asterisk: That 35% jump comes with a major caveat, as it’s the first season measured under Nielsen’s new “Big Data + Panel” system, making a true apples-to-apples comparison impossible. Still, the numbers point to a broadening audience, with viewership among women up by nearly 50% and among Hispanic audiences by nearly 40%.

• The 'Inside' story: The success extends to studio programming, where the high-profile import of "Inside the NBA" is paying off, averaging 1.2 million viewers. Meanwhile, the daily program "NBA Today" has seen its audience grow by more than a quarter.

The strong start gives ESPN early bragging rights in the NBA's new 11-year media rights era and throws down the gauntlet for its incoming broadcast partners, NBC and Prime Video. The viewership win comes as ESPN continues to build out its all-in-one direct-to-consumer streaming strategy, bundling its app with Disney+ and Hulu.