Toronto Raptors set another Canadian TV record for Game 4 of NBA Finals

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This article was published 10/06/2019 (2094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Television numbers in Canada continue to hit record levels during the Toronto Raptors’ NBA Finals run.

TSN announced Monday that it set a new Canadian record for an NBA game with an average audience of 4.631 million for the Raptors’ Game 4 Finals win over the Golden State Warriors on Friday night. The numbers includes viewers on TSN, CTV2 and the French language broadcast on RDS, but does not include people watching the American feed.

TSN also said the Game 4 broadcast was the highest-ranked sports broadcast of the calendar year, surpassing the Super Bowl.

TSN, CTV2 and RDS combined for an average audience of 4.3 million in Game 2 of the Finals on June 2.

Sportsnet reported it had a then-record audience of 3.3 million viewers for Game 1 of the Finals, but that number does not include a French language broadcast.

Sportsnet and TSN, whose parent companies are co-majority owners of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment (which owns the Raptors), split the NBA team’s broadcast schedule.

TSN said Game 4 reached 10.294 million Canadians with a peak audience of 6.493 million in the game’s final minute.

The numbers are now in the same neighbourhood as Toronto Blue Jays’ playoff levels. The Blue Jays had an average audience of 5.12 million for Game 6 of the American League championship in 2015 and 4.02 million for the 2016 AL wild-card game on Sportsnet channels.

Traditionally, the Raptors’ television numbers are well behind the Blue Jays. The Raptors and Blue Jays are the only Canadian teams in their respective leagues.