Sign of the times, Bulls viewership down 63%

[MalagaBulls]

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[Bulldog23]

I stopped watching games this season, best thing I did. Hopefully the Bulls fire AK.

[League Circles]

I always wonder how they measure these things. I mean I know about Nielsen obviously. Do they still have **** boxes in people's houses measuring OTA viewership lol?

I've watched more games this year than in recent years due to the free OTA experience which is huge IMO.

[jnrjr79]

The CHSN thing is so funny to me. When the Mavs went from an OTA + paid streaming version instead of an RSN, they were praised for offering it for free. When the Bulls do it, everyone whines “nobody can find/get” the channel, which is nonsense.

I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to pay for CHSN given the 3 teams available on it are terrible, but i’s a choice. And CHSN broadcasts from cities all across the Midwest for free, so for $20-40 for an antenna and 5 minutes of setup time, most (but not all) people in the Midwest can tune in for free.

I suspect viewership would be better if there were a product worth watching.

[League Circles]

Didn't know Nick Friedell is still working.

What does he mean when he says most fans can't find/watch the games?

[panthermark]

The CHSN thing is so funny to me. When the Mavs went from an OTA + paid streaming version instead of an RSN, they were praised for offering it for free. When the Bulls do it, everyone whines “nobody can find/get” the channel, which is nonsense.

I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to pay for CHSN given the 3 teams available on it are terrible, but i’s a choice. And CHSN broadcasts from cities all across the Midwest for free, so for $20-40 for an antenna and 5 minutes of setup time, most (but not all) people in the Midwest can tune in for free.

I suspect viewership would be better if there were a product worth watching.

I can't get it for free, and I'm out in the burbs. I've only been able to watch one or two games, but most of the time I can't get a signal.

[ChettheJet]

Close to nothing to do with the record.

I could not get channel 62.2 or 62.3 via a simple antenna until they were 25 games into the season, and I don't believe I was the only one. The NBC sports net was widely available on cable, satellite and streaming, the new channel I know is not carried on Hulu. If people in Chicago want to watch and haven't reduced their Bulls interest to p ing and moaning on message boards, a one tine $25 purchase of an antenna that is easily connected and give viewers 70 or so channels is not unreasonable.

NASCAR late last year made a deal with the CW Network (channel 9 in Chicago) to broadcast the Xfinity series races. That goes full time this season and they're more than happy with the nationwide coverage that network has.

[League Circles]

The CHSN thing is so funny to me. When the Mavs went from an OTA + paid streaming version instead of an RSN, they were praised for offering it for free. When the Bulls do it, everyone whines “nobody can find/get” the channel, which is nonsense.

I don’t blame anyone for not wanting to pay for CHSN given the 3 teams available on it are terrible, but i’s a choice. And CHSN broadcasts from cities all across the Midwest for free, so for $20-40 for an antenna and 5 minutes of setup time, most (but not all) people in the Midwest can tune in for free.

I suspect viewership would be better if there were a product worth watching.

I can't get it for free, and I'm out in the burbs. I've only been able to watch one or two games, but most of the time I can't get a signal.

I'd encourage you to possibly try a different/better antenna and move it around. I'm 30 miles from the towers and have an indoor antenna that gets like 70 channels in one position randomly in the middle of the room, but only a handful of channels (not including CHSN) if I put it closer to the TV. I really only use it for Bulls games and it's one of those rectangular sheet antennas so I just move it into position for the game and then stow it away when not in use. It's great cause I'm not paying to watch this garbage lol.

[League Circles]

I have a feeling there is more difference in antenna performance, at least for indoor, than people would think. I basically bought the highest rated one I could find on Amazon for $28.

[drosestruts]

The article being shared credits the Blazers going OTA as the reason for their viewership increase. Dallas and Phoenix like others mentioned were praised for going OTA.

Friedell's message is opposite of what the article is stating for the teams with the biggest jump.

[panthermark]

I've tried multiple antennas.
Three to be exact...two are powered.
I've tried three different rooms. I rarely get 62.2, and I have not gotten it in awhile. It always stops at 60.1 now.

Based on Channel Master, I'm 33 miles away from the tower with a "yellow" signal strength for 62.2 and 63.2.
60.1 is "green" for me.

The product is not worth going through a bunch of hassle anyway, nor signing up for a specific plan. I can see why viewership is down.

[samwana]

I don't feel like watching much anymore. No ILP for me since the quality went bad with MS and I'm not interested enough to find some stream every time.

[Hold That]

This would be a fireable offense if we had real ownership.


Since the NBA is worrying about markets and viewership, maybe they’ll gift us the #1 pick since they gift wrapped Luka to the Lakers

[Jcool0]

Fwiw:

A year ago, the Blazers were mired in a precipitous 49% year-over-year ratings freefall on Root Sports Northwest, the lowest in the league and a wake-up call that cable was worth escaping at all cost — emphasis on cost.

Trading in about a $20 million to $25 million annual rights fee payment from Root for a smaller mystery number, the Blazers cut an over-the-air deal with Sinclair’s local affiliate KUNP and went to work.

After having their games previously available in only 20% of the Portland market, they launched their direct-to-consumer streaming app BlazerVision at $19.99 a month. They also consolidated all of their game production and ancillary programming through their new in-house Rip City Television Network. They doled out free antennas. They extended their airwaves to markets such as Seattle, Medford, Eugene and Yakima/Pasco. Then they counted the sets of eyes.

Internally, the stat that perhaps pleased Hankins (and team sponsors) most was “just the sheer amount of time” the fan base has engaged with BlazerVision, whether it was via phones, tablets or smart TVs.

“Fans are averaging in between 45 and 50 minutes of watching the game on BlazerVision,” he said. “That’s exciting in a world in which there’s a lot of distraction.”

Externally, the stat that perhaps pleased the league office most was the amount of single-game ticket purchases at Moda Center, a sign that the team’s multistate broadcast reach has lured fans to the venue, albeit still not an exact science.

Still, the fiscal risks of going DTC and over-the-air are palpable. The Jazz and Suns were the first to attempt the model in 2023-24, and sources said both fell deep below financial projections. The teams did exceed their past RSN ratings that first year, but both are down this year (the Jazz dipping 44% and the Suns dropping 19%) — perhaps due to their underperforming teams or because the model is unpredictable.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Articles/2025/02/14/the-trail-blazers-are-no-1-in-local-broadcasting/

[ChiefILL53]

I think its mainly due to the fact that people in chicago cant get access to the games. Ive been in texas for almost 10 years, so I always have to find alternative ways to watch games, but I'd have to do the same if I was back home and actually wanted to pay attention to the season.

Also, I dont wanna see Nick Fridell saying anything about the team lol.

[prolific passer]

It's about time it dropped after staying pretty good post dynasty.

[HoopsterJones]

Barely watched any games this season.

[Jo Jo English]

Fan indifference is definitely a factor, but this has to mostly be due to CHSN. A lot of folks don't realize how bad the antenna option is for people who have never had an issue getting Bulls games before. I live in northern IL, around 40-50 miles from the nearest tower, and I've never had much luck getting a decent signal from there in all of my previous OTA attempts. I also do the majority of my sports watching in one particular location in the home that is really a terrible place to rely on an OTA signal.

So no, for a lot of fairly local Bulls fans it isn't as simple as grab an antenna from Amazon and you're good to go.

Sure, I could completely change our provider, which would cause other issues for people in the home, or pay for the dedicated CHSN app, but this is where the indifference is factoring in. I'm not missing the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls here. They either need to make the games reasonably convenient for me to watch or make this team worthwhile for me to have to jump through hoops to get access to these games.

Given these numbers, obviously I am not alone.

This isn't even touching on the archaic league pass local blackout restrictions. It confounds me that they keep making it more difficult for fans to legally view the NBA games they would like to watch.

[Jcool0]

I have non idea if it's true, but I heard the higher up you are on the channel listing the worse the signal can be.

[League Circles]

Fan indifference is definitely a factor, but this has to mostly be due to CHSN. A lot of folks don't realize how bad the antenna option is for people who have never had an issue getting Bulls games before. I live in northern IL, around 40-50 miles from the nearest tower, and I've never had much luck getting a decent signal from there in all of my previous OTA attempts. I also do the majority of my sports watching in one particular location in the home that is really a terrible place to rely on an OTA signal.

So no, for a lot of fairly local Bulls fans it isn't as simple as grab an antenna from Amazon and you're good to go.

Sure, I could completely change our provider, which would cause other issues for people in the home, or pay for the dedicated CHSN app, but this is where the indifference is factoring in. I'm not missing the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls here. They either need to make the games reasonably convenient for me to watch or make this team worthwhile for me to have to jump through hoops to get access to these games.

Given these numbers, obviously I am not alone.

This isn't even touching on the archaic league pass local blackout restrictions. It confounds me that they keep making it more difficult for fans to legally view the NBA games they would like to watch.

I bet a rooftop antenna would work well. Not ideal obviously, but you'd probably get many dozens of channels including CHSN completely for free indefinitely.

There's gonna be some clunkiness to the overall societal transition away from big TV packages to the more a la carte offerings that make more sense going forward. I get that the notion of paying $20/month during the season means more spending to people who pay for cable, satellite, or IP "cable", but those are all going away soon enough and the high costs of them will be replaced by a basket of a la carte products that the average consumer prefers for the same total dollars. I know I wildly prefer my combo of free OTA, Netflix, Prime, YouTube Premium etc over a traditional cable-like package, and for much less money.