NBA TV Viewership Down: Warriors Dominance to Blame

[floppymoose]

How would KD going to the Warriors not make ratings worse?

Is it solely to blame? No.

But if you're going to tell me that 29 fan bases already knowing GS would win literally a year in advance didn't have an effect on ratings, then I don't know what to tell you.

It's like the people who will swear that Kawhi and other players doing load management (ie. missing games) has zero effect on ratings, but within the same post they'll say that it's because of injuries (ie. missing games).

Ratings were way up with KD on the Warriors my guy. The ratings on Warriors games were way better than when the Heat and the Spurs had their runs and played in the Finals for example. Since 2015, Steph Curry and the Warriors have been the biggest ratings magnet since the early 2000's Lakers.

The Warriors sudden downfall is far from the only problem with the NBA and their lack of ratings but them coming back to prominence would certainly help the NBA a great deal and bring back a ton of casual fans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Finals_television_ratings

Ratings were down after KD joined, my guy. The only slightly interesting year with KD was 2017 because we didn't know what was going to happen in a 7 game series. After that, the ratings clearly fell.

You think the NBA is happy just because one team had an increase in ratings?

Like I said before, the fans of 29 teams knew from the beginning of the season that their team wouldn't win. Outside of the uptick in GS fans (as per you) watching the game, you had a decline overall for the NBA.

Now tell me why the NBA should be happy with this?

So you think it was KD to Warriors driving down cable ratings.... ok. Then why is it even worse this year?

[LouisLitt]

Ratings were way up with KD on the Warriors my guy. The ratings on Warriors games were way better than when the Heat and the Spurs had their runs and played in the Finals for example. Since 2015, Steph Curry and the Warriors have been the biggest ratings magnet since the early 2000's Lakers.

The Warriors sudden downfall is far from the only problem with the NBA and their lack of ratings but them coming back to prominence would certainly help the NBA a great deal and bring back a ton of casual fans.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBA_Finals_television_ratings

Ratings were down after KD joined, my guy. The only slightly interesting year with KD was 2017 because we didn't know what was going to happen in a 7 game series. After that, the ratings clearly fell.

You think the NBA is happy just because one team had an increase in ratings?

Like I said before, the fans of 29 teams knew from the beginning of the season that their team wouldn't win. Outside of the uptick in GS fans (as per you) watching the game, you had a decline overall for the NBA.

Now tell me why the NBA should be happy with this?

So you think it was KD to Warriors driving down cable ratings.... ok. Then why is it even worse this year?

Did you ignore my original post to you?

I said to pretend like that didn't have an effect on ratings is hilarious, but it's not the sole reason.

I believe ratings are falling even further because players are telling the fans that the regular season doesn't matter, the league is confirming this by not fining teams for "load management", and the majority of sports "analysts" are saying how smart load managing players are.

People (specifically Clippers fans) will say that this has had no affect on ratings, but then will say that ratings are down due to injuries. It's literally the same thing because in both situations you have star players missing games.

The league needs to fine players for load managing (if they complain, tell them to load manage in China) or they need to shorten the regular season.

[DoItALL9]

Blame the parity?

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[mulamutti]

Blame the parity?

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I don't think its any of these reasons. I suspect the NBA is actually growing in viewership. Its just that nobody watches network television anymore. Everyone's watching on ball streams and streaming etc. They need to figure out easier, ways to get people high quality ball content to people's devices, like on amazon prime or Netflix or Hulu so that people can pay a small amount per month to get access to all the games.

[clyde21]

Blame the parity?

Sent from my LM-G710 using RealGM mobile app

I don't think its any of these reasons. I suspect the NBA is actually growing in viewership. Its just that nobody watches network television anymore. Everyone's watching on ball streams and streaming etc. They need to figure out easier, ways to get people high quality ball content to people's devices, like on amazon prime or Netflix or Hulu so that people can pay a small amount per month to get access to all the games.

explains long term trend, yes, but doesn't explain the big dip in ratings from last year.

[dautjazz]

When I lived with my dad, NBA League Pass through DirecTV was awesome, but when I moved out, I cut the cord, and have HATED league pass since. The first year I moved out, I moved in with a friend, who wanted to cable, so we got Comcast (DirecTV wasn't an option), and many of the games were not even available in HD, WTF!? League Pass Broadband was even worse. I had around 100 Mbps like 4 years ago when I first tried it, and they told me that they ran a line test with and that it's my ISP. BS!! I had SlingTV for TNT/ESPN games, and it never had any issues, I never had issues with 4k Netflix/Amazon (though obviously they are not live), and when I used Ballstreamz or whatever that service was called, it worked substantially better.

I don't know how League Pass works now on Hulu or Sling, but back then it wasn't available under those services. If they allow you to use NBA League Pass through their platforms I could be tempted, but their standalone service should work good, it's RIDICULOUS that it doesn't.

[G35]

The regular season has become fairly meaningless imo, I don't feel the players are giving full effort and watching nothing but offense gets boring.

I think the playoffs will bring back some fans but they need to do something to make the RS mean something again......

[ILOVEIT]

Because a great Warrior team played a great style of ball. Fun to watch. Curry is a huge NBA draw.

The NBA without the Warriors is a very boring style of ball....some ugly basketball in fact.

[InWestWeTrust]

No Steph, No Klay, No Warriors/Villains, No Kawhi Raptors, No KD, No Zion, Too much player movement over the offseason, Nothing real exciting happening just sad stuff, no true rivalries which causes boring games, I’m sure there’s more.

[YaBoyKD]

Wonder if local MLB ratings are higher than their NBA counterparts. That would kind of counter the national media narrative that the pro basketball is substantially more popular in this country than major league baseball.

No it wouldn't. The NBA has a much younger fanbase who are more likely to be streaming, out and about with busier lives etc.

Baseball is an antiquated sport. No one wants to sit there for 4 hours watching guys pitch every 15 seconds.

Edit: Good lord I was being generous, it's actually over 20 seconds between pitches.

tennis has a 30 second serve clock. nfl football takes that long for the next play as well.

how long is the typical break for a 2 shot foul? or even 1 shot? or for replaying an out of bounds call with 7 minutes left in the 2nd quarter?

edit : lets add golf as well, which is an incredible sport for tv. basketball lacks the drama and tension that builds between plays and delivers intermittent crescendos. basketball has a constant flow that becomes like white noise. it never gets too boring. but where is the first quarter equivalent of a bases loaded, full count 19 pitch at bat in the 2nd inning?

basketball on tv is like streaming hip hop. you can listen for 9 hours and never realize a different song came on.

Wat

[BballIntellect]

No Steph, No Klay, No Warriors/Villains, No Kawhi Raptors, No KD, No Zion, Too much player movement over the offseason, Nothing real exciting happening just sad stuff, no true rivalries which causes boring games, I’m sure there’s more.

The NBA most definitely needs a villain.

[eagereyez]

NBA league pass is broken... its not what it use to be with the certain features it had and its still too expensive... illegal streams actually provide a much better service better than league and live tv games IMO

these are the posts that make me say waaaaaaattttttt?

league pass works like a charm for me. never a problem. and if you put the scores on "hide" mode and watch after the game is over it is only $1.99/game.

what league pass features are no longer available?

what service do you get from the illegal stream that make it better?

The illegal streams are often streamed from local stations.. meaning they don't have to deal with the lag from League Pass. And $1.99/game is a lot. Netflix costs $16 a month for the premium plan. That's 8 NBA games or hundreds of T.V. shows and movies. It's not hard to figure out what the better bang for your buck is when shopping for entertainment.

[Warriorfan]

Teams like dynasties

[slamilcarBarca]

No it wouldn't. The NBA has a much younger fanbase who are more likely to be streaming, out and about with busier lives etc.

Baseball is an antiquated sport. No one wants to sit there for 4 hours watching guys pitch every 15 seconds.

Edit: Good lord I was being generous, it's actually over 20 seconds between pitches.

tennis has a 30 second serve clock. nfl football takes that long for the next play as well.

how long is the typical break for a 2 shot foul? or even 1 shot? or for replaying an out of bounds call with 7 minutes left in the 2nd quarter?

edit : lets add golf as well, which is an incredible sport for tv. basketball lacks the drama and tension that builds between plays and delivers intermittent crescendos. basketball has a constant flow that becomes like white noise. it never gets too boring. but where is the first quarter equivalent of a bases loaded, full count 19 pitch at bat in the 2nd inning?

basketball on tv is like streaming hip hop. you can listen for 9 hours and never realize a different song came on.

Not sure what your point is, all of the numbers and data, whether you want to talk about future revenue, fanbase demographics, youth participation, point to baseball being exactly what I said it is in relation to basketball. The rest is apples to oranges.

my point is this : your only complaint (perhaps you have others but did not mention them) was the time of the game and the in between pitches. first of all you overstated the length of a game by over 25%. i reminded you that other sports have contests just as long (or longer) with the same type of breaks (and again, even longer) between plays as baseball.

if time were your only complaint, it would transfer to other sports.

and lol at young people having "busier lives". young people get fatigued with a 20 hour work week. what is it ? playing around on tiktok is so draining?

[slamilcarBarca]

Since we're going old school was it illegal to record music off the radio with a blank cassette and play
it on a walkman or in your car?

you're missing the two key differences that nullifies your comparison. can you fish them out and tell us? (there are several actually but two of elevated importance)

and here is a little update about your blank cassette. a portion of money spent purchasing blank cassettes, and later mp3s etc, goes into a fund that pays artists agencies. so in short when you buy a blank cassette you are paying artists for their music. recording music from the radio is considered fair use because the artists are in fact being paid.

so, no it is not illegal to record music off the radio. your failed analogy is of course legal.

Correction my parents money that paid for those blank cassettes get it right slappy

you're a righteous dude. just don't give the rest of us coronavirus as you graze thru the grocery store.

[slamilcarBarca]

NBA league pass is broken... its not what it use to be with the certain features it had and its still too expensive... illegal streams actually provide a much better service better than league and live tv games IMO

these are the posts that make me say waaaaaaattttttt?

league pass works like a charm for me. never a problem. and if you put the scores on "hide" mode and watch after the game is over it is only $1.99/game.

what league pass features are no longer available?

what service do you get from the illegal stream that make it better?

The illegal streams are often streamed from local stations.. meaning they don't have to deal with the lag from League Pass. And $1.99/game is a lot. Netflix costs $16 a month for the premium plan. That's 8 NBA games or hundreds of T.V. shows and movies. It's not hard to figure out what the better bang for your buck is when shopping for entertainment.

how bad is the lag? and unless you're live gambling why does it matter?

and i just disagree that in a day where coffee costs $5 and beer costs $9 that $1.99 for a game is a lot.

and i don't see the point of the netflix comp - they aren't offering the same product so what sense is it to compare costs? sure they are both "entertainment" but do you compare the cost of a hula hoop with a jet ski?

and by the way there is no bang for the buck when you are stealing.

[Scott Hall]

you're missing the two key differences that nullifies your comparison. can you fish them out and tell us? (there are several actually but two of elevated importance)

and here is a little update about your blank cassette. a portion of money spent purchasing blank cassettes, and later mp3s etc, goes into a fund that pays artists agencies. so in short when you buy a blank cassette you are paying artists for their music. recording music from the radio is considered fair use because the artists are in fact being paid.

so, no it is not illegal to record music off the radio. your failed analogy is of course legal.

Correction my parents money that paid for those blank cassettes get it right slappy

you're a righteous dude. just don't give the rest of us coronavirus as you graze thru the grocery store.

Righteous?

You know what's not morally correct is these cable companies that have been screwing us for YEARS. How about
when I try to slash my cable package they still force me to BUY channels I don't WANT. How about if I want a certain
channel they FORCE you to buy and entire package of channels you don't want. How about if you want a news channel
they force you to buy a $7 or $8 dollar package of news channels.

You wonder why people said FU to cable...

As for music what about back in the day when they forced you to buy a $20 CD that had only one or 2 songs
you liked that you wanted to hear.

I could go on about how shady the music industry has been for years...

If streaming was truly illegal then the government would block those websites like they have with others.

You can't cry over spilled milk when they've been screwing people or taking advantage of people for years.