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ccording to data cited by Front Office Sports, the 2019/20 National Basketball Association (NBA) season delivered new digital media records despite a plunge in television ratings.

Following the NBA restart on July 30 inside the Orlando bubble, the league recorded 6.9 billion video views on its social channels.

Of these 6.9 billion views, 2.6 billion were on Instagram.

There were one billion views across all NBA digital platforms during the NBA finals, which saw Lebron James’ Los Angeles Lakers secure their 17^th title with a 4-2 series win over the Miami Heat.

YouTube gathered 321 million views of NBA content during the post season, with 61 million coming during the finals.

The digital media figures are good news for the NBA, after their drop in TV viewership was well-documented following the return to play.

The drops in TV ratings plummeted during game one of the finals, seeing drops of 45% in viewership and 48% in ratings compared to game one of last year’s NBA finals.

This year’s finals, which concluded on 11th October, averaged 7.5 million viewers on Disney-owned ABC, marking a 51 per cent decline on the 2019 series between the Golden State Warriors and Toronto Raptors.

The drop is in part due to the backlog of sporting events in the US as a result of the health crisis, which also led to audience declines for the National Hockey League’s (NHL) Stanley Cup finals and the Kentucky Derby horse race.