NBA viewership down

[ItsDanger]

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Guys, I don't earn revenue from NBA. Therefore my opinion has no monetary conflict of interest. This person in the tweet? He does.

[Dan33185]

Cable costs $200/month. Nobody can afford to pay that **** anymore, especially with the cost of living being as high as it is now.

Bingo, this right here. And this goes to attendance as well, not many can afford to go to more than a game or two a year (if they're lucky). Attending sports in general is fast becoming a rich person's hobby, the middle and lower class fans are getting squeezed out.

[Tor_Raps]

<sigh> Well...this should definitely help ratings.

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I think the NFL Xmas games will be fired with The Simpsoms theme. I will tune in for 30.seconds out of curiosity but definitely not what you posted lol.

[Jamaaliver]

I think the NFL Xmas games will be fired with The Simpsoms theme. I will tune in for 30.seconds out of curiosity but definitely not what you posted lol.

Another Disney creation abomination...

[LockoutSeason]

Looks like the in-season tournament (which this board hates for no particular reason) has been a success.

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[Nate505]

Looks like the in-season tournament (which this board hates for no particular reason) has been a success.

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Is that the IST being a success, or the defending champions going against an undefeated 15 win team (at the time) being a success.

Like does that stupid floor they play on really just drive the viewers to watch?

[Jamaaliver]

Looks like the in-season tournament (which this board hates for no particular reason) has been a success.

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Is that the IST being a success, or the defending champions going against an undefeated 15 win team (at the time) being a success.

Like does that stupid floor they play on really just drive the viewers to watch?

I believe the fact it was a featured game played a big part. If this was just an average Wednesday matchup available only on League Pass or regional broadcasts...it likely would not have garnered nearly as much attention.

I honestly believe fewer games but with higher stakes would drive much better ratings...

[dhsilv2]

Looks like the in-season tournament (which this board hates for no particular reason) has been a success.

Not to do this AGAIN, but that would also be a game between the two teams running away with the best record int he league this year...who wouldn't want to watch that sippy cup or not?

[Profound23]

Looks like the in-season tournament (which this board hates for no particular reason) has been a success.

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Is that the IST being a success, or the defending champions going against an undefeated 15 win team (at the time) being a success.

Like does that stupid floor they play on really just drive the viewers to watch?

It makes me watch less, can't stand it

[Wolfgang630]

https://youtu.be/ygDe5zh9TsU?si=40RxLpsk7tRa9L-5

Good video. Like I’ve felt Adam Silver is trash. He cares about max profit to the fullest over everything else- over players health, over the game itself. Bastard has not done a single rule change to help change the game. He will not do anything accept “oh let’s add some stupid ass cup to play for”, “oh let’s add a play in” for money money money money. Of course you want to grow your business, but that’s all he thinks about with no care for anything else, especially the viewers and how the game is played.

Like who gives a **** what you tell refs to do. It sticks for two weeks and is done for. These are not hard fastened rules that help change the game so everyone doesn’t look the same.

[Charlie Sollers]

Is there any other league where the fans care more about the ratings than the NBA?

[celtics543]

Is there any other league where the fans care more about the ratings than the NBA?

Professional wrestling fans care more about ratings than anyone. It's literally a topic of discussion every week when ratings come out.

[celtics543]

Cable costs $200/month. Nobody can afford to pay that **** anymore, especially with the cost of living being as high as it is now.

Bingo, this right here. And this goes to attendance as well, not many can afford to go to more than a game or two a year (if they're lucky). Attending sports in general is fast becoming a rich person's hobby, the middle and lower class fans are getting squeezed out.

True. Plus with technology being better now why would I spend $500-$1000 for tickets, parking, food, etc so my family can go watch a Celtics game when I can buy an 85 inch tv, have comfy seats at home, eat whatever I want whenever I want, and not have to deal with getting out of the gridlock parking lot or parking garage when it's over? All of what I just listed, other than the tv, would cost less for a whole season than what one game would cost to be at live.

[the sea duck]

personally i'm watching the least basketball i have in over 20 years. the cost/accessibility environment is too great for me to justify when i have other investments i need to make. i've been hoping for years for some streaming option to watch most/all games in high quality/reliability. i'm willing to pay a premium for that. what i get instead are insulting, inflated packages that don't fit me, a lifelong fan.

is this the beginning of the end of my nba fanhood? i dropped nfl and mlb a number of years ago. all i have left is nba and ufc and both of those are slipping away too, especially the nba. perhaps next year will be better because i already have peacock (it's cheap) and amazon (ubiquitous) and espn+ which gives me some nba games every once in a while (i think the abc games) along with ufc fights. there's still no good solution to watch my "local" team without paying for a bundle of TV that i don't want and won't use. same for the exclusive espn games, even though i'm a willing disney customer with espn+.

the shady "streams" that i've enjoyed in the past (and even allegedly been willing to pay for) are gone and the only ones worth watching are the ones i can easily get on my tv. i hate mirrored content, it never quite looks right.

so i'm semi-out at the moment, sadly. i check box scores and forums to get an idea of what's going on. it's like being in prison and asking about how things are on the outside.

thanks, nba. sincerely, your fan for 30+ years.

[BasketballAnon]

I'm mostly busy with other things which is my main issue. But other than that:

- I used to watch Undisputed every day. Undisputed used to get me hyped for games and fill me in on the storylines. There's no Undisputed anymore. I use to watch games so I knew what Skip Bayless was going to talk about but there's no need to do that anything.

- I don't like ESPN's broadcasts and don't want to watch any game they broadcast. Kendrick Perkins is racist and I don't want to watch him. I'm not interested in Doris Burke and I feel her and the two ex-WNBA players are only there because of their genders.

- I'm blacked out from the one team I would watch even though I'm not in their market. I could pirate the games but why bother?

[The-Stallion70]

NBA basketball just doesn't commonly look like basketball just about anywhere else its played.

Drop coverage from a center, his man screens the ball up top, now the guy guarding the ball has to guard two guys while the ball handler can easily dribble into a midrange shot or three. All while the center can take a vacation and because it fits into this

"Oh well we're okay with midrange shats cos numbers say its okay" modern defensive "scheme"

Got it

[dhsilv2]

Looks like the in-season tournament (which this board hates for no particular reason) has been a success.

Is that the IST being a success, or the defending champions going against an undefeated 15 win team (at the time) being a success.

Like does that stupid floor they play on really just drive the viewers to watch?

It makes me watch less, can't stand it

Second, I haven't gotten past a quarter with that crap...but odds are younger followers like it. They'll pay for different looking characters on video games after all. Like think about that...paying money to have a character look different.

[dhsilv2]

https://youtu.be/ygDe5zh9TsU?si=40RxLpsk7tRa9L-5

Good video. Like I’ve felt Adam Silver is trash. He cares about max profit to the fullest over everything else- over players health, over the game itself. Bastard has not done a single rule change to help change the game. He will not do anything accept “oh let’s add some stupid ass cup to play for”, “oh let’s add a play in” for money money money money. Of course you want to grow your business, but that’s all he thinks about with no care for anything else, especially the viewers and how the game is played.

Like who gives a **** what you tell refs to do. It sticks for two weeks and is done for. These are not hard fastened rules that help change the game so everyone doesn’t look the same.

They're mostly linked together. Sure, viewers might not like the ads on the jersey, but it doesn't bother us enough to not turn in. I mean dude...soccer fans buy jersey's WITH the ads on them! It's wild but they do it!

But at the end of the day, the rules changes are about viewers. Just because you might not like some of those changes doesn't mean the viewer experience isn't what drives most of their profits.

[Rainwater]

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It takes a special kind of delusion to say something like this. So disconnected and out of touch with the world of the average man, it's ridiculous. I do think the viewership numbers are skewed, but it has nothing to do with the aforementioned reasons. It's because people are almost forced to stream games illegally.

You need about a bazillion subscriptions to be able to watch the games. The prices of said subscriptions are incredibly high, of course. That's no problem, though. Just get league pass, and you'll be able to watch your favorite team play every night. Oh wait, it's blacked out. If, however, you wish to pay that amount of money, the product you're getting is often subpar. Ads, time-outs, free throws, some more ads, free throws, gambling propaganda, ads, and let's not forget the ads.

These games take way too long to complete, and one is looking at their television or other devices for about 3 hours to watch 48 minutes of the product they wish to see. I do not have the exact stats and I would be very interested in seeing them, but I would assume the 4th quarters take about 30 to 45 minutes to complete. Not to mention the way in which the zebras affect the game too, with the most egregious calls that are worthy of a firing in any other field of expertise.

That is just assuming the players show up too, because some, not all, love to sit in street clothes.

The elections typically have an impact on sports ratings and so do competing sporting events. This same exact topic was brought up 4 years. It’s gets kinda annoying at this point that people don’t understand, that is what I find delusional.

It seems like the NFL was able to escape the effects this year but not the NBA. That should be no surprise since it is the NFL.

The increased ratings come after speculation that viewership might decline during the election season. That's what happened in 2016, when the ratings dipped 8 percent from the previous year, according to Front Office Sports. Viewership also fell across multiple sports leagues during the COVID-impacted 2020 election season.

https://www.reuters.com/sports/nfls-massive-ratings-weather-election-season-2024-11-21/#:~:text=Viewership%20also%20fell%20across%20multiple,steady%20around%20the%20election%20window.

[Rainwater]

Is there any other league where the fans care more about the ratings than the NBA?

NBA fans are the only fans who want to see their sport fail despite its success.