Christmas Day Games Deliver Largest Audience Ever For ABC & ESPN

The slate of Christmas games on ABC/ESPN delivered its highest cumulative audience ever based on the fast national ratings.

The ABC doubleheader (Orlando-Boston, Miami-Los Angeles) averaged a 5.5 Nielsen fast national rating and the ESPN tripleheader averaged a 1.8 HH coverage rating. Compared to the five Christmas Day games in 2009, household ratings were up 45 percent on ABC (5.5 vs. 3.8) and 20 percent on ESPN (1.8 vs. 1.5).

Lakers-Heat earned a 6.4 fast national rating, ABC’s highest rating for an NBA regular season game since Christmas Day in 2004 (Heat-Lakers, 7.3 rating). Locally, the game earned a 15.5 metered market rating in Miami and a 15.0 in Los Angeles.

The Magic-Celtics game earned a 4.6 fast national rating, which was an increase of 39 percent over last year’s matchup between the same two teams.

Of the three ESPN games, the highest-rated was Chicago-New York, registering a 2.7 fast national rating, up 42 percent over the Heat-Knicks telecast last year (1.9 rating).

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