Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings

[hugepatsfan]

This would have mattered more to me as a fan last year because the TV deals were being done. The NBA is the only league where contracts for players are so directly aligned with the cap since the max deals start as a percentage of that, which is derived from the basketball revenue. If the ratings are plummeting to the point that an upcoming TV revenue deal was lowered, there'd be massive competitive implications. It'd be a huge competitive disadvantage to have your stars signed long term and would cause a lot of financially motivated moves from teams that I don't believe are in the best interest of the competitive nature of the sport.

With a long term TV deal signed though, I don't think the ebbs and flows of this matter AS MUCH. Still something to monitor long term though for the health of the sport.

[fanofthegreats]

Can’t even watch this trash series.

[Pachinko_]

I know people mock because we are all watching. But this stuff matters. TV money subsidizes the game and the stakeholders aren't going to like taking a lot less which means they will pass the costs on to us whether it be increased ticket pricing or a streaming service you are paying for.

We should want high ratings so that TV and advertisers are paying the costs, not us.

I 100% agree. At the end, we want this sport to be best it could be.

Ι don't think the money works like that guys... every single dollar that exists in basketball ultimately comes from us, I think.

The TV doesn't pay those giant contracts out of the kindness of their heart, they pay it because they know when they add NBA games more people buy their packages, and who buys them as soon as they add NBA games? Us. What about the owners? Same thing. They pay billions for a franchise because they are essentially buying upront a secure future revenue stream from tickets and merchantise. Which we pay for. Advertisers? same. They make money from the people who buy products that they see advertised during NBA games. And who are those people? You guessed it. Every dollar in basketball ultimately comes from us, the owners/TV/advertisers are just middlemen who keep a cut for themselves before letting the remainder pay for the actual team. But they don't add money to the equation. It looks like they do, because they pay billions up front, but they only do it because they believe the money they will collect from the fans will be even more billions in the long term. And they're usually right.

Now there is the exception of those owners who knowingly overpaid to buy a franchise... I reckon that most of them do it because they are fans themselves, like one of us, the difference from us being that they have way too much money. Overpaying for an NBA team is the kind of emotional, irrational thing you and I would do if we had a spare couple of billion lying around
Am I wrong?


*Also, sometimes your Govts throw some tax money into the basketball kitty. Like that Bucks arena in Milwaukee they partly paid for. Not that I'm complaining, it's private/public infrastructure, in a way.

[durden_tyler]

Can’t even watch this trash series.

Respect for honesty that not all basketball fans are smart.

[Lalouie]

UH-OH
https://frontofficesports.com/nba-finals-game-2-ratings-dip-even-after-record-low-opener/

Magic Johnson's definition of a superstar: "A person who can go on the road and sell the building out."

no superstar no ratings. it's a very concise definition that weeds out all the fakes/tweeners so i have to agree

so while i understand the hardcore and those who just want to see close games(which bottom line just means being entertained)
there is this overwhelming majority from BOTH groups that seek an entertaining close games finals. me, i'd rather see a beautiful blowout

but i think "entertainment comes in different forms. I am entertained by great artists(talents) creating great art

to address the above there's a better chance of seeing great things in sports if great stars are playing, and ergo great teams. cuz superstars and superteams do super things. and i don't mean haliburton's last minute heroics either. those are just great plays

i for one can wait for those singular moments and that's what ive been missing so far

[Duke4life831]

I was talking to my dad yesterday. He’s the definition of a casual sports fan outside of the NFL. He usually will watch the playoffs for both MLB and NBA when they come on.

We were talking about the start of the US Open and I brought up the Finals. He had no clue they were even going on.

I just think the NBA and ESPN are just really bad at marketing the NBA. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of the product on the court anymore. But I think that affects hardcore fans, far more than casuals. I think they’re inability to capture casual fans interest is a big issue.

[manlisten]

Could this be a case of a minor setback for a major comeback? Ratings are sinking overall but I would imagine the audiences in Indiana and OKC are glued to their streams after they're done tending the rabbits and plowing the fields. I suspect over 90% of the population in those hick states have nothing better to do than watch these Finals and this could potentially lead to increased interest in the sport which may carry over into following seasons regardless of who's playing. It might've actually been a genius play by Silver to rig the Finals with small market teams to throw everyone off the scent with a short term ratings dip with the purpose of increasing viewership and profit on the back end.

[TheGeneral99]

It's been an awesome finals so far.

But the reality is that it's two small market teams and both Shai and Haliburton are not yet household names...Shai is getting there, but he's kind of a low key player.

[bisme37]

So uhh

Read on Twitter

[cupcakesnake]

Can’t even watch this trash series.

Complaining about it on a basketball forum is more your speed.

When I'm profoundly disinterested in something, I don't think about it at all.

[jkvonny]

So uhh

Read on Twitter

Nice!

[NotaHypeJob]

So uhh

Read on Twitter

Peaking at 11 million is not good, that's what the average usually is minus the COVID impacted years.
Yep, just looked it up and average was 9 mil, 20% down from last year. The NBA is becoming a regional sport like baseball

[bisme37]

So uhh

Read on Twitter

Peaking at 11 million is not good, that's what the average usually is minus the COVID impacted years.
Yep, just looked it up and average was 9 mil, 20% down from last year. The NBA is becoming a regional sport like baseball

I haven't really taken part in this thread until now so maybe it's been talked about. But do these ratings numbers include streaming and DVR's and international viewers and etc?

Seems to me TV ratings are down for everything vs years ago and ratings data is perhaps not capturing the whole picture like it used to. A lot of people don't even have TVs anymore.

If the Finals are the most watched TV program in the last month, that's gotta be pretty good, no?

[liquidswords]

i'm so confused by this board because its allegedly full of basketball fans but some of y'all are just big market/star ****. The finals have been amazing basketball and these playoffs have been the best in my lifetime (i'm 37)

[KyRo23]

I was talking to my dad yesterday. He’s the definition of a casual sports fan outside of the NFL. He usually will watch the playoffs for both MLB and NBA when they come on.

We were talking about the start of the US Open and I brought up the Finals. He had no clue they were even going on.

I just think the NBA and ESPN are just really bad at marketing the NBA. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of the product on the court anymore. But I think that affects hardcore fans, far more than casuals. I think they’re inability to capture casual fans interest is a big issue.

Do you think it's harder or easier to market these kinds of things in todays world? Not many people that I know have cable anymore and just watch apps. I know for me, I only turn on the channels that have the NBA on when I know they are on, so it is rare that I'm watching regular TV to see ads

I remember as a kid and into my 20s always having ESPN on and random channels where you would see the finals ads. The black eyed peas "lets get it started" 2004 NBA finals commercials every second. I wouldn't even know where to see these nowadays and I think TV aps have had some negative effects on how sports market their games

[og15]

I was talking to my dad yesterday. He’s the definition of a casual sports fan outside of the NFL. He usually will watch the playoffs for both MLB and NBA when they come on.

We were talking about the start of the US Open and I brought up the Finals. He had no clue they were even going on.

I just think the NBA and ESPN are just really bad at marketing the NBA. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of the product on the court anymore. But I think that affects hardcore fans, far more than casuals. I think they’re inability to capture casual fans interest is a big issue.

It's become harder to market some of these things because of how people consume their content. Most of the ads people get now are also targeted, so that makes it more geared to what you are already looking for or somewhat interested in.

I know there's stuff that pops up even if you just open your streaming app, but it's so easy to.jist ignore whatever is popping up on your streaming app and go to the specific thing you want.

I don't think there's much in terms of sports that I know about or that I am made aware of if I'm not looking for it myself, but I know that if I checked right now while thinking of it, it's probably all been advertised to me, I just ignored it. Heck, I didn't realize the Superbowl was happening the weekend it happened until some co-workers mentioned it, and there were likely ads on the radio at work thst mentioned it multiple times, but I didn't pay attention as I wasn't thinking about it.

So I'm skeptical as to whether this is a problem with their ability to market and just a reality of media and entertainment today.

[NotaHypeJob]

So uhh

Read on Twitter

Peaking at 11 million is not good, that's what the average usually is minus the COVID impacted years.
Yep, just looked it up and average was 9 mil, 20% down from last year. The NBA is becoming a regional sport like baseball

I haven't really taken part in this thread until now so maybe it's been talked about. But do these ratings numbers include streaming and DVR's and international viewers and etc?

Seems to me TV ratings are down for everything vs years ago and ratings data is perhaps not capturing the whole picture like it used to. A lot of people don't even have TVs anymore.

If the Finals are the most watched TV program in the last month, that's gotta be pretty good, no?

Yeah, tv ratings do include those things your mentioning and have for a while now.
I think the NBA is just becoming more regional like baseball tbh. Like most people are not going to watch a world series that is Seattle vs Milwaukee and the same is becoming true for the NBA Finals. NBA has a real lack of superstar problem right now but they got really lucky with having Magic/Bird to Jordan to Kobe to Bron for the last 40 years

[og15]

i'm so confused by this board because its allegedly full of basketball fans but some of y'all are just big market/star ****. The finals have been amazing basketball and these playoffs have been the best in my lifetime (i'm 37)

People talk a lot about basketball quality and all that kind of stuff, but the reality is that when it comes down to it, the general fan cares about star power, drama, stories and narratives.

I do agree that what is disappointing is when a good amount of people who are supposedly not casual fans are actually just as fickle as casual fans.

People say they like good basketball, but in reality, there's still a lot of people, even among non casuals who like the star power, drama, etc, MORE than the actual quality of play. That's just a reality of the situation, but it also means that a lot of the complaining about how ESPN markets their coverage and all that stuff is kind of illegitimate.

[tsherkin]

i'm so confused by this board because its allegedly full of basketball fans but some of y'all are just big market/star ****. The finals have been amazing basketball and these playoffs have been the best in my lifetime (i'm 37)

People talk a lot about basketball quality and all that kind of stuff, but the reality is that when it comes down to it, the general fan cares about star power, drama, stories and narratives.

I do agree that what is disappointing is when a good amount of people who are supposedly not casual fans are actually just as fickle as casual fans.

People say they like good basketball, but in reality, there's still a lot of people, even among non casuals who like the star power, drama, etc, MORE than the actual quality of play. That's just a reality of the situation, but it also means that a lot of the complaining about how ESPN markets their coverage and all that stuff is kind of illegitimate.

Sad, but whatever.

This Finals matchup has been dope, so the heck with them, man.

[Anticon]

I'll confess I've been following the series with interest but haven't really found the game play compelling enough to keep my interest across 7 games. I respect both teams but it is far from a usual finals matchup.

One of the effects of parity is that a matchup that can be great for one game is hard to keep focus on over a 7 game series.

The rosters don't help either - Shai is genuine MVP but doesn't have the same public profile, which you can see from his lack of major advertising presence.

We are fully into the post Bron / Curry / Kobe era. It's not surprising that thing last looked like this in 2007, when the league hadn't moved into that era yet.

I'd you had Jokic, Giannis or Luka there the ratings would look a bit different I think, but this is going to be an issue in a lot of years from now on, until the talent profile changes.