Last night’s Game 1 of the NBA Finals delivered impressive Out-of-Home viewership numbers, according to Tunity Analytics.  The matchup between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors on ABC averaged more than 6.8MM viewers.  The audience skewed 80% male and 20% female versus last year’s 73% M / 27% F split. Sixty-five percent of viewers were in the A25-54 demo.

The Raptors are the first Canadian team to make the NBA Finals and hence are not associated with a U.S. home media market.

“Game 1 was down from an OOH average of 10.2 million viewers for the same game in 2018. The lack of a second U.S. home team coupled with the absence of LeBron James and Kevin Durant may have cost the game some viewers in out-of-home locations,” said Paul Lindstrom, Head of Research and Analytics, Tunity Analytics. “This year’s higher male skew could also indicate that the games are attracting more of a hardcore fan base over casual viewers.”

In comparison, the Eastern Conference Finals averaged more than 2.3MM viewers over seven games on TNT and the Western Conference Finals averaged 4.1MM viewers over four games on ESPN.

Tunity Analytics is a one-of-a-kind audience metric that more fully captures the out-of-home linear TV viewing that occurs in locations outside the home like restaurants/bars, gyms, offices, and airport lounges.  The measurement helps TV networks and advertisers understand who their OOH viewers are and how to reach them more effectively and efficiently.  For more information, visit tunityanalytics.com and follow on Twitter at @TunityAnalytics.

Source: Tunity Analytics. Viewing estimates are derived from Tunity mobile app usage for May 30, 2019.  OOH viewer impressions are calculated using Tunity Analytics proprietary estimation model.

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Paul Lindstrom is the Head of Research and Analytics at Tunity, an out-of-home (OOH) data measurement company and consumer application which allows users to hear live audio from muted televisions directly through their mobile devices. In his role, Paul supports the creation of various data products, including Tunity's new analytics product, and helps set strategic vision and direction. Prior to Tunity, Paul spent over four decades at Nielsen, where he was responsible for designing and deploying innovative tools, systems, studies, and measurements for new media outlets. He also directed sales, operations, and strategy for Nielsen Strategic Media Research and Nielsen On Location. Paul is an innovation, research, and strategy executive with a successful track record in pioneering business development, product leadership, and research design. His combination of experience with media and custom research, location, and OOH measurements at Nielsen have allowed him to develop a new metric to capture OOH viewing insights based on Tunity’s traffic, tuning, and attention data.