TV ratings for NBA up 17 percent over last season

With hand-wringing abound about declining television ratings for the NFL and other live sports, the NBA continues to grow traditional TV viewership.

According to Nielsen data cited by Adweek's A.J. Katz, combined average ratings for the NBA's national broadcasts on TNT, ESPN, ABC, and NBA TV is at 1.4 million viewers this season, a 17 percent jump from 2016-17.

The numbers outpace the ratings growth of the majority of linear television in general, a notable fact in an age of cord-cutting and non-traditional viewing. Furthermore, the growth remains strong among the coveted 18-34 age demographic that advertisers target.

"Then, there's the viewership offline, on social and on digital, whether it's the live games or anything around the league," Turner Sports vice president Jon Diament told Katz. "That's exploding as well."

The TV growth is also backed up on the local level. Regional sports networks have seen a seven percent increase in ratings for 27 teams this season, according to data obtained by Sports Business Journal's John Ourand and John Lombardo.