NBA Ratings down 45%

#2
I can't view the article. Are they just talking bubble ratings? Because yeah it would make sense with the amount of games going on at odd times and while people are at work.
 
#3
I can't view the article. Are they just talking bubble ratings? Because yeah it would make sense with the amount of games going on at odd times and while people are at work.
OP wasn’t very specific. The article says that, in particular, Nationally televised ABC games were down 45 percent this season (I believe as a whole) compared to 2011-12.
 

VF21

Super Moderator Emeritus
SME
#6
“There is hope for a potential balm in the form of an extension of the league’s current TV deal with network partners ESPN and Turner, set to expire in 2025, which would inject desperately-needed revenue into the system.”

Without that deal and its years of guaranteed income, it will be harder for the league to keep the lights on in the event that 2020-21 has no fans. There’s one big issue, though. The desperate need for a new national TV deal comes at the exact moment that viewership interest in the league has cratered. Not merely ebbed. Not subsided a bit in accordance to what one might expect with “cord cutting.” No, the NBA has fallen to a new viewership low perhaps not seen since the 1980s.
Then Rudy Gobert tested positive for coronavirus and the league disappeared from TV sets for nearly five months. Through incredible effort, Adam Silver and company allowed the show to go on. In interviews leading up to the bubble opener, Silver conveyed a sense that America was desperate for this sort of entertainment. “For the country, it will be respite from enormous difficulties people are dealing with in their lives right now.” That’s a commissioner’s gloss, but it didn’t sound so far-fetched. Maybe basketball’s return could be this big national moment, one might have thought. People had been starved for entertainment. The novelty that was “the bubble” received a ton of sports media coverage. It would have made sense if the NBA, by returning through a logistical miracle, resonated in a way not seen since Michael Jordan.

Instead, very few watched. The bubble viewership has been even lower than the NBA’s pre-COVID averages in this ratings disaster of a season, with the NBA’s most-watched game of last week trailing golf, NASCAR and wrestling. This, despite an incredible run of exciting games in Orlando. So far, the NBA built it but very few came.
 
#8
Ratings may be down, but it's hard to imagine the TV contracts being drastically reduced this go around. Even if the ratings are way worse than normal, they are way better than whatever the alternative programming would be.
 
#10
I have lost some luster for the league TBH. The game is more ping pong today with teams taking turns jacking up 3's with very little attention payed to defense and players dont even get embarrassed when they get scored on anymore. I dont think silver is doing a good job.
The league keeps crutching itself around super loaded teams too. That's not a good long term plan for this very reason.
 
#11
Ratings may be down, but it's hard to imagine the TV contracts being drastically reduced this go around. Even if the ratings are way worse than normal, they are way better than whatever the alternative programming would be.
It can be simple as cost of programming versus potential ad revenue that could be generated. Greater cost than potential revenue is a losing proposition.
 
#12
Ratings may be down, but it's hard to imagine the TV contracts being drastically reduced this go around. Even if the ratings are way worse than normal, they are way better than whatever the alternative programming would be.
I haven't really checked but I think I heard somewhere that pretty much the consensus right after the last deals were signed (waay pre this stuff) was that the networks regretted it. They overvalued the NBA's worth.
 
#13
It can be simple as cost of programming versus potential ad revenue that could be generated. Greater cost than potential revenue is a losing proposition.
That's true, I'm certainly no expert so I'll be interested in seeing how it all plays out. It'll be crazy if player salaries peaked and will go down in the future
 
#15
I haven't seen an NBA game in person since Dec. 27, 2013, when Cousins led the Kings past LeBron's Heat in OT. It's also the last time I can remember being excited to watch pro basketball.
 
#19
The NBA and MLB have done a poor job with broadcasting production values imo. I'm hoping NFL is able to do much better. With the resources at NBA disposal I would have expected some sort of virtual crowd involvement that really worked - somehow translating iphone feedback on a large scale to arena noise incorporating a virtual home court advantage. Instead they have cardboard cutouts in a MLB stadium and the NBA games look like they are being played in a practice gym.

It seems like they have gradually incrementally improved the NBA broadcast but it may be too late - folks tuned in and saw an empty gym and tuned right back out. They need videographics and audio that make it seem interactive like a real game with fan engagement
 
#20
I haven't had league pass for about 5 years. I only watch kings now too. Maybe the odd playoff game if it catches my attention.

There's just too much chucking threes it really is quite boring.
Don't forget how easy it is to send an incredibly athletic 6'5" 225lb man crashing to the floor. I don't know if Harden has ever completed a lay up without falling to the ground. Steph Curry has this weird condition where he shoots 3 and then his legs do the splits and turn to jelly and he inexplicably falls to the ground. If the league deems you a star, you're allowed to just barrel into defenders at your hearts desire and shoot 15 free throws a game. Fans love free throws. Can't think of a more exciting part of the game.

The game has turned into 3 point shooting and looking for a part of a body from the other team that you can purposely bounce off of while faking a shot to try and get to the line.
 
#21
Don't forget how easy it is to send an incredibly athletic 6'5" 225lb man crashing to the floor. I don't know if Harden has ever completed a lay up without falling to the ground. Steph Curry has this weird condition where he shoots 3 and then his legs do the splits and turn to jelly and he inexplicably falls to the ground. If the league deems you a star, you're allowed to just barrel into defenders at your hearts desire and shoot 15 free throws a game. Fans love free throws. Can't think of a more exciting part of the game.

The game has turned into 3 point shooting and looking for a part of a body from the other team that you can purposely bounce off of while faking a shot to try and get to the line.
Kawhi is 6’8 and shows his strength by pushing his defender with his off arm but let the defender stay in front of him and dudes falls 5 feet back. Watching players shoot free throws is why I watch, nothing better than a whistle on every other play
 
#22
Thread title is misleading; ratings are down 45% vs the 2011-2012 season, which has been the high water mark for average ratings the past 20 years (for some reason.)

I think the article's analysis is flawed too. Focusing on network TV ratings, might have been crucially important in the 50s through the 90s. But due to internationalization, cable, and transmedia expansions; they do not carry the same weight any more.

If you want to know how the NBA is really doing, look at the salary cap; which is based on a 50-50 split of revenue (+ or - a few percent depending on the CBA for a given era.)

This is what the NBA actually cares about, and the association has been killing it.

The green seems to be projected before the dumpster fire that is the year 2020; and undoubtedly this year will see a contraction. But it's not for distaste with the current playstyle. They shoot basically the same number of threes this year as they did last year, and they have basically the same number of possessions as they did last year.
 
#24
Yeah, the Athletic had an interview today with two sports media ratings experts, who had a few issues with Straus’s conclusions in the original piece.
Thank you for pointing out the Athletic article; one of the things they highlight is the importance of New York and Chicago to national ratings numbers, and how remarkable it is that the NBA product in those markets has been so terrible.

It actually would explain the peak in 2011, as at that point Chicago has pre ACL injury MVP Derrick Rose, and New York still hasn't fired D'Antoni, (which precipitates Melo-ball and the franchise's slide into competitive disgrace.)
 
#26
Sports aren't really the same without fans. Even watching at home. Part of the enjoyment of sports is atmosphere. Empty stadiums just give off a summer league/exhibition game feel and I just kind of switch off.

I wouldn't even think of watching a game that doesn't involve the kings right now.
 
#29
What do they mean by percentage of people with TVs in use? Is that just people who have TVs in general or people who pay for cable/satellite/sports subscriptions and haven't cut the cord yet?
 
#30
I do think you need to recognize a few things though:
1) The "social justice" element that turned some off has been far, far less than what was going on in the Bubble
2) Almost everyone agrees that this year's playoffs have been fantastic from a basketball and story standpoint
3) Helps that your sports shows (e.g. inside the NBA) are back on and fully operational too