NBA

Will The NFL Spoil NBA Christmas Day TV Ratings in 2023?

Gia Nguyen Sports Editor

Updated23 Dec 2023

The NBA has become a staple on Christmas Day with the first game airing 76 years ago. In 1947, the New York Knicks beat the Providence Steamrollers in the inaugural Christmas Day game, tipping off a holiday tradition that would stand the test of time.

For years, the NBA was the only sport that aired games on Christmas, and as a result, the league has dominated the TV ratings on Christmas Day.

However, that could change in 2023.

The NFL will be joining the Christmas Day schedule in 2023 with a tripleheader of football games on Monday, December 25th.

NFL On Pace To Steal Christmas Day Viewers From The NBA

For the first time ever, the NFL will air games on Dec. 23, Dec. 24, and Dec. 25. The decision could effectively end the NBA’s reign during the holidays, as the NFL audience is expected to dwarf that of its basketball rival.

During Thanksgiving, the NFL averaged over 34 million viewers, which is nearly 8x of the average audience of an NBA game on Christmas Day.

Last year, the NFL joined the Christmas Day TV schedule and crushed the NBA’s TV ratings by a wide margin. In 2022, the NFL averaged 22.9 million viewers across three games. Meanwhile, the NBA reached just 4.27 million average viewers. While ratings were actually up 4.6% year-over-year, the number represented the second-lowest mark recorded by the NBA over the past five seasons.

The discrepancy could get even worse in 2023. This year, the NFL will have seven nationally televised games from Thursday through Monday, including another tripleheader on Christmas Day. According to Joe Pompliano, the NFL could beat the NBA’s total viewership by more than 75 million viewers.

NBA Christmas Day Average TV Ratings (2018-2022)

NBA Christmas Day has become one of the league’s biggest assets from a broadcast media rights perspective.

While the NBA Christmas Day tradition began in 1947, the first nationally televised broadcast came in 1967 by way of ABC. Since then, the NBA has fortuitously expanded on the tradition, adding up to five games to the Christmas Day schedule.

In 2023, the NBA Christmas Day slate will feature some of the league’s biggest stars and will be broadcast in 200 countries and 50 different leagues, providing a platform that is even bigger than the NBA Finals.

Typically, NBA Christmas Day games draw in 200% more viewers than a typical regular season matchup. However, the numbers have been declining over the past decade and could see an even bigger decline with increased competition from the NFL.

Here are the NBA’s Christmas Day viewership numbers over the past five years, dating back to 2018.