Start spreading the news! For the first time in 50+ years, the New York Knicks are NBA Champions, and advertisers made sure they had a seat at the table. Disney announced they sold out of ad inventory for the first four games of the Finals shortly before the first game, a signal of just how confident advertisers were the audience would show up. That gambit paid off. The Finals drew an average viewership of 23.0M across five games, the highest since 1992. Game 5 alone saw an average of 26.2M viewers. From fast food chains to film studios to World Cup tie-ins, the 2025 NBA Finals ad landscape reflected a sports moment that had the full attention of both fans and marketers alike.
When digging deeper into the viewership data for Game 5, it's no surprise that New York, one game away from ending a 50+ year championship drought, was the most tuned-in market by total number of viewers. After New York, it goes: Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and San Antonio. When looking at tune-in rate though, San Antonio takes the crown for the most audience-engaged market, with approximately 33.1% of the market tuning into the game. Nearby markets Victoria (31%), Corpus Christi (23.6%), and Oklahoma City (23.2%) follow behind San Antonio. New York came in at 20%, a strong number when remembering it’s the largest DMA in the nation.
Seemingly, the West wasn't too interested, with the least tuned-in markets being Seattle (5.1%), Eugene (5.4%), Boise (5.9%), Bakersfield (6.0%), and San Diego (6.1%).
With a close second half, viewership steadily increased in both the New York and San Antonio markets. What's striking is how differently the two markets entered the game: San Antonio opened at a 17% tune-in rate compared to New York's 8.8% — Spurs fans were nearly twice as engaged from tip-off, a reminder that a smaller market can outpunch a massive one when the stakes are high. From there, viewership grew at a remarkably similar rate across both markets through the final hour — New York up 21.4% and San Antonio up 21.0%. Both markets peaked around the same time (23% at 10:33 PM ET for New York, and 37.3% at 10:39 PM ET for San Antonio), and New York held its audience better to the finish, with its tune-in rate falling just 1.7 percentage points from peak to final whistle, compared to San Antonio dropping 5 percentage points as the Spurs' title hopes faded.
Advertisers Make a Big Three
We tracked 313 creatives that aired across the games from 122 advertisers. Despite Disney selling out inventory, only 12 advertisers maintained a presence across every game, suggesting that most brands concentrated spending around specific games rather than committing to the entire series. These are the advertisers that aired a spot across all five games: Allstate, American Express, AT&T, Burger King, Corona, Gatorade, Hyundai, Kia, Michelob Ultra, Popeyes, Red Bull and Toy Story 5. A few other advertisers only missed one game: Pizza Hut, T-Mobile, KFC and Bet365.
Fast Food and Film Go All in for the NBA Finals
By airings, the top ad subcategories during the NBA Finals were Fast Food (18%), Film (11%), Auto Makers (10%) Cable, Phone & Internet (4%), and Auto, Commercial & Home Insurance (4%).
Across all other programming airing during the same period (June 3–13), the leading subcategories were Legal Services (8%), Home Improvement (5%), Household Products (3%), Automakers (3%), and Fast Food (3%).
The biggest differences between NBA Finals advertising and the broader TV landscape were in Fast Food, which increased from 3% of airings to 17%, and Film, which surged from just 0.1% to 9%. Some major films shown off during the NBA Finals include Minions & Monsters, Toy Story 5, Super Girl, Masters of the Universe, Disclosure Day, The End of Oak Street, and The Odyssey.
Alcohol advertising also overindexed during the Finals, rising from 0.45% to 2% of airings. Meanwhile, Legal Services advertising moved in the opposite direction, falling from 8% of airings across all other programming to just 3% during the Finals.
New York New York (+ San Antonio)
Local advertisers were willing to pay premium Finals rates to reach highly engaged hometown audiences. Looking at the market of the new NBA champions, New York saw six local advertisers buy airtime exclusively in the New York market during the game: Slomin's AC, Hospital for Special Surgery, Finish Your Diploma, Huntington Learning Center, Bullseye Blower, and Viva Tequila Seltzer. In contrast, we saw five local advertisers air ads exclusively in the San Antonio market throughout the series: Doors-N-More, Hanania Auto Graph, Schweitzer Mountain, Nassau Paradise Island, and Luke Fruia Motors of Brownsville.
From Basketball to Soccer (or football)
World Cup fever is real, especially among advertisers. The World Cup was a big theme among advertisers airing ads during the NBA Finals, Lay’s, Tubi, Quaker Oats, McDonalds, The Home Depot, Powerade and others tied their advertising into the world cup.
Disney's sell-out of ad inventory before tip-off of Game 1, sustained viewership growth throughout the series, and a Game 5 that drew 26.2 million viewers collectively signal that live sports remains the last true appointment television in an increasingly fragmented media landscape. The brands that used the NBA Finals to road-test their World Cup creative are betting that the momentum of one massive live sports moment carries directly into the next. For the advertising world, summer 2026 isn't a slow season. It's a sprint.