NBA viewership down

[1bigfan13]

Organizations and the players don't care about the regular season. Why should fans?

This is the crux of the problem. Several parties are at fault, including the fans.

The regular season has been devalued over the past decade due to the following reasons:

- The "only rings matter" narrative pushed by fans and the media.

- Load Management

- Excessive playoff slots handed out. We're at a point where 20 of 30 teams make the postseason in some form or fashion. That's ridiculous.

- The national media's reluctance to embrace and highlight ALL teams. And this just isn't a small market problem. Last year the Celtics won 64 games and obviously ended up winning the title, but rarely did any of the FS1 or ESPN shows acknowledge the great season they were having.

- Typically I don't care what guys are making but I think it does send the wrong message when players who barely participate in the regular season year after year are still rewarded with large contracts. IMO this further supports the optics that NBA organizations themselves don't take the regular season seriously.

[IG2]

- Lack of American born superstars. This is by far the biggest issue. NBA has always been a completely superstar-driven league and the stories they create. The current league isn't lacking in great players, but the ones at the top are all foreign born. America simply isn't that invested in them.

- Cord-cutting/streaming has changed everything. The NBA audience skews young and these guys get their basketball fix online.

- Years of load mgmt and the post-freedom of movement (2019) scoring inflation led to some massive image problems. Namely the perception that players simply don't care. So why would the fans?

- The on-court product is not fun to watch. The 3pt revolution that began with the mid-2010's became fully realized by 2019 (the first year where 3PA/G exceeded 30). And it has gotten progressively worse since (current average is 37.5 ). The game feels too unaesthetic and too homogenized. It's smart offense, sure, but it has cost the game its soul.

[MrTribbiani]

Overall, IMO the main reason is that consumers have way more options than in previous decades.

Other posters mentioned some valid points. The NBA media definitely needs to do a better job of covering the game and all the teams.

[MrTribbiani]

Officiating.

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That's hard nosed basketball though. Bad Boy Pistons style.

I thought many posters were fans of the physical 80s/90s NBA.

[Chuck Everett]

When the NBA is the only one with declining ratings, as the other major sports see consistent ones, it is impossible not to see that there is a problem with the product for professional basketball. They need to literally stop promoting Lebron, KD and Curry full stop immediately. It is over and those days aren't coming back.

[fansse]

The product is just down awful that’s why

[ItsDanger]

Let's start with accurate comparable data. Not sure why it's so difficult to provide such basic info. Whenever I look up this stuff online, the incomplete numbers given are a convoluted mess. It doesn't help that most of the people analyzing the TV ratings are total hacks.

[nbanflguy]

It’s the players. That’s it. Nothing more to it.
The players are the ones who don’t even want to play basketball.
It’s them who openly hate and disrespect their own fans
It’s them forming super teams and forcing their way out of small markets
They are the ones flopping, chucking 3’s, load management
They are the ones who can’t even pretend to care about the regular season
They don’t give a F about the All Star game or Dunk contest
It’s the players. That’s it

[Rust_Cohle]

Let's start with accurate comparable data. Not sure why it's so difficult to provide such basic info. Whenever I look up this stuff online, the incomplete numbers given are a convoluted mess. It doesn't help that most of the people analyzing the TV ratings are total hacks.

The NBA doesn’t want those numbers public.

[Rust_Cohle]

When the NBA is the only one with declining ratings, as the other major sports see consistent ones, it is impossible not to see that there is a problem with the product for professional basketball. They need to literally stop promoting Lebron, KD and Curry full stop immediately. It is over and those days aren't coming back.

This isn’t right. Baseball and hockey have seen declining viewership. Only American football is crushing it:

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2024/baseball-shake-up-the-game-or-risk-a-slow-death/#:~:text=Storied%20franchises%2C%20such%20as%20the,drop%20from%20the%20prior%20season.

[NBA_is_cringe]

the main point of the NBA in general was to get boomers to worship MJ instead of caring about anything that matters, and now that the US is ruined along with the lives of all the boomers' children, it doesn't matter anymore, so there's no point wasting energy trying to make the NBA entertaining. also it's almost hard to imagine how they could make the product any worse if they tried; you have to watch like 2 hours of commercials per game which means you're watching the same ad for toilet paper or car insurance like 100 times in a row in the span of 3 hours. who on earth would want to live like that? no one is going to tolerate that except braindead boomers who gave up on life decades ago. also most of the players seem like such pussies it's vomit inducing; the next face of the NBA has no career because it was too hard to stop eating. and the game itself is mostly just chucking 3's which is just horrendous. so yeah who knows who this product is supposed to be for. it seems as though the people who are in charge of it got so overwhelmed with greed and hatred of their patrons that the product itself imploded into nothingness, a lot like what happened with google and their search product that doesn't work anymore.

[Dominator83]

Everything is down in viewership. The NBA already secured the bag for the next decade regardless.

People talking about declining ratings are like homeless people talking about the end of the world

[Rust_Cohle]

the main point of the NBA in general was to get boomers to worship MJ instead of caring about anything that matters, and now that the US is ruined along with the lives of all the boomers' children, it doesn't matter anymore, so there's no point wasting energy trying to make the NBA entertaining. also it's almost hard to imagine how they could make the product any worse if they tried; you have to watch like 2 hours of commercials per game which means you're watching the same ad for toilet paper or car insurance like 100 times in a row in the span of 3 hours. who on earth would want to live like that? no one is going to tolerate that except braindead boomers who gave up on life decades ago. also most of the players seem like such pussies it's vomit inducing; the next face of the NBA has no career because it was too hard to stop eating. and the game itself is mostly just chucking 3's which is just horrendous. so yeah who knows who this product is supposed to be for. it seems as though the people who are in charge of it got so overwhelmed with greed and hatred of their patrons that the product itself imploded into nothingness, a lot like what happened with google and their search product that doesn't work anymore.

At least with MJ it was always must watch TV, even for casual fans. NBA doesn't have that one player that people "I can't miss a game of his" Which is strange as there is more talent in the league than ever before, although I agree with you about what the sport is lacking right now and comes up short.

MJ transcended the sport, nobody in the NBA has done that since Kobe if we are being honest.

Even stuff like this is puzzling:

https://slate.com/culture/2019/12/nba-ratings-slump-lakers-lebron-anthony-davis-awesome-what-gives.html

[FarBeyondDriven]

1) game is not fun to watch since it's so geared towards offense. It doesn't resemble the game we all grew up watching and loved
2) players are overpaid, entitled and unlikeable
3) League is clearly rigged so it feels pointless to watch
4) Every other sport besides the NFL had its peak and eventual decline. Might just be the NBA's turn

[Chuck Everett]

When the NBA is the only one with declining ratings, as the other major sports see consistent ones, it is impossible not to see that there is a problem with the product for professional basketball. They need to literally stop promoting Lebron, KD and Curry full stop immediately. It is over and those days aren't coming back.

This isn’t right. Baseball and hockey have seen declining viewership. Only American football is crushing it:

https://www.bu.edu/articles/2024/baseball-shake-up-the-game-or-risk-a-slow-death/#:~:text=Storied%20franchises%2C%20such%20as%20the,drop%20from%20the%20prior%20season.

Baseball is unique in that it's always been a regional game. Now that a lot of the teams are leaving the regional sports networks and returning to OTA networks their ratings are increasing locally. Hockey became a niche sport twenty+ years ago when they left ESPN (for NBC and ESPN retaliated by not showing their highlights anymore).

The WNBA and women's college basketball having better ratings in the summer than NBA regular season games is not something anyone should be just glossing over.

[D.Brasco]

Who are the stars the general public/casual fans will care about or pay attention to when LeBron, Curry and Durant retire? That's the issue, point blank. The NBA has always been a star driven league, if there are no big stars there are less fans.

The public has not been sold on the new stars.

[Dominator83]

the main point of the NBA in general was to get boomers to worship MJ instead of caring about anything that matters, and now that the US is ruined along with the lives of all the boomers' children, it doesn't matter anymore, so there's no point wasting energy trying to make the NBA entertaining. also it's almost hard to imagine how they could make the product any worse if they tried; you have to watch like 2 hours of commercials per game which means you're watching the same ad for toilet paper or car insurance like 100 times in a row in the span of 3 hours. who on earth would want to live like that? no one is going to tolerate that except braindead boomers who gave up on life decades ago. also most of the players seem like such pussies it's vomit inducing; the next face of the NBA has no career because it was too hard to stop eating. and the game itself is mostly just chucking 3's which is just horrendous. so yeah who knows who this product is supposed to be for. it seems as though the people who are in charge of it got so overwhelmed with greed and hatred of their patrons that the product itself imploded into nothingness, a lot like what happened with google and their search product that doesn't work anymore.

At least with MJ it was always must watch TV, even for casual fans. NBA doesn't have that one player that people "I can't miss a game of his" Which is strange as there is more talent in the league than ever before, although I agree with you about what the sport is lacking right now and comes up short.

MJ transcended the sport, nobody in the NBA has done that since Kobe if we are being honest.

Even stuff like this is puzzling:

https://slate.com/culture/2019/12/nba-ratings-slump-lakers-lebron-anthony-davis-awesome-what-gives.html

I'm an MJ guy thru and thru, but LeBron has absolutely been a ratings draw. Of course a 40 year old LeBron doesn't have the appeal of 25 year old LeBron sure. But he's been Box office throughout his career. Hell, those of us that were here in the 2000's remember how unpopular the NBA was until LeBron's 2010 decision and formation of the Heatles bought in a truckload of bandwagon casuals to the scene.

When LeBron is done there's gonna be some seriously big shoes to fill.

[KingFox]

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[Bob Ross]

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For me it's this. Blackout rules make it extremely difficult to watch my team without a terrible buffering illegal stream. Blacked out from Knicks, Nets and Sixers where I live. It's ridiculous

[bledredwine]

Weak

This era is increasingly frustrating to watch because of terrible defensive foul calls.

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When players drive to the rim, you literally see the defenders putting their hands in the air or to their own chest with the obvious body language of trying to showcase to the ref that they’re not making any contact with the offender.

It’s straight up embarassing and a disgrace to sport.

Do you guys seriously think there weren't some terrible foul calls in every era of the NBA? And in super important moments too? I would love to see some more physicality allowed and still get annoyed at weak touch calls on drives, but that's part of sports all the time. And it's definitely not happening all the time these days.

Last season was the lowest # of fouls called per game in history btw, this season isn't far off. If you really feel like watching the NBA in 2024 is just constant horrible calls--in a way that didn't happen in say 1996 or 2012--my guess is it's more about a narrative building in your head than the actual game stuff.

Nope, nothing nearly as bad as this, and I’m probably the only one here who actually watches games from different eras.


The regular season has never been this meaningless and anyone who disagrees is simply in denial.