Yet another deciding game for the Toronto Raptors translated into a decisive win for TSN in the ratings war Sunday.
The Raptors game seven showdown with the Miami Heat – the team’s second straight winner-take-all game – attracted an average audience of 1.5 million, according to overnight data from Numeris, making it the most-watched program on Canadian TV and the most-watched basketball game ever on the Bell Media specialty channel.
The audience peaked at 2.7 million viewers late in the fourth quarter of the game, won by the Raptors 116-89. The win set up a showdown with the Eastern Conference’s best regular season team, the Cleveland Cavaliers, in the conference finals.
Sunday’s game was also the most-watched program in the Toronto area, achieving a 36.9% share of audience.
A total of 4.8 million people watched at least part of the game, which saw the Raptors backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan pour in a combined 63 points to propel Toronto to the conference finals for the first time in the franchise’s 21-year history.
The seven-game series attracted an average of 1.25 million viewers on TSN, with more than 7.7 million unique Canadians tuning in at some point during the series. The Eastern Conference finals against the Cavaliers begins Tuesday night in Cleveland.
