Finals TV numbers

[Ryoga Hibiki]

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/267349/Game-4-Of-NBA-Finals-Averages-23-Rating-795M-Viewers

The Golden State Warriors' 107-97 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals averaged a 2.3 rating with 7.95 million viewers, according to early results.

question, aren't numbers like this incredibly low for a country the size of the US for such an important event?
I read the SuperBowl's numbers are like 100m+, but even a game like Juventus-Inter for the meaningless italian cup managed to total like 9m viewers in Italy, that has less than 20% of the population of the US.

Is basketball really that much of a niche sport in the US?

[Ugalde]

they make the sport impossible to watch legally. i am 30 and every friend i have watches illegally. the numbers would be much higher if in the us sports were possible to watch legally

[FinNasty]

they make the sport impossible to watch legally. i am 30 and every friend i have watches illegally. the numbers would be much higher if in the us sports were possible to watch legally

How do they make it impossible to watch legally? They’re on main networks which are viewable through almost all platforms. Obviously anyone who has cable can watch it. I cut the cord a while back, but they’re available through YouTubeTV, Sling, etc…

[maxpower8888]

Well soccer is bigger in Italy than the NFL is in USA, so even a Coppa Italia final will draw in huge views. Other than that, the world as a whole is slowly shiftibg away from cable so TV viewerships will steadily continue to decrease.

[Lockdown504090]

they make the sport impossible to watch legally. i am 30 and every friend i have watches illegally. the numbers would be much higher if in the us sports were possible to watch legally

How do they make it impossible to watch legally? They’re on main networks which are viewable through almost all platforms. Obviously anyone who has cable can watch it. I cut the cord a while back, but they’re available through YouTubeTV, Sling, etc…

I legit dont know anyone who has legal cable.

[Ugalde]

they make the sport impossible to watch legally. i am 30 and every friend i have watches illegally. the numbers would be much higher if in the us sports were possible to watch legally

How do they make it impossible to watch legally? They’re on main networks which are viewable through almost all platforms. Obviously anyone who has cable can watch it. I cut the cord a while back, but they’re available through YouTubeTV, Sling, etc…

yea nobody wants to pay for youtube tv or sling anymore man. i would be willing to pay the nba a fee directly to stream the games. i’m not willing to pay $60 a month for. a bunch of bs i don’t care about. heck i pay $40 a year for my iptv service and get everything in amazing quality.

the only sport i watch legally is f1 and it’s because they have a direct to consumer option that is affordable.

edit:
just wanted to add it’s not even about the money. it’s the convenience. sports just aren’t making watching them easy.

like i would 100% be willing to buy League Pass. but they block out all the national games, which are the best games.

so now i need league pass and cable? lol no way.

[Loaded_Hollows]

It’s so easy to stream any live sporting event online (for free)

[Prophet_tt]

Why are we obsessed with these numbers. It means nothing. Has RealGm's user numbers declined? Have conversations around basketball decreased? If not then we know people are still consuming the NBA content at the same or higher rates because we can still talk about it. We are just consuming through different avenues that traditional outlets haven't been able to track yet. Simple.

[iLLmatic860]

they make the sport impossible to watch legally. i am 30 and every friend i have watches illegally. the numbers would be much higher if in the us sports were possible to watch legally

Ive been using free trials for the last 2 months

It’s annoying making a new email every week or 2 but worth it

[Eagle4]

It’s so easy to stream any live sporting event online (for free)

And whats even funnier is that theres millions who STILL don't know how to access them.

[WeLikeOurGuys]

I'd also say the long wait in between games is not helping.

[The Rebel]

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/267349/Game-4-Of-NBA-Finals-Averages-23-Rating-795M-Viewers

The Golden State Warriors' 107-97 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals averaged a 2.3 rating with 7.95 million viewers, according to early results.

question, aren't numbers like this incredibly low for a country the size of the US for such an important event?
I read the SuperBowl's numbers are like 100m+, but even a game like Juventus-Inter for the meaningless italian cup managed to total like 9m viewers in Italy, that has less than 20% of the population of the US.

Is basketball really that much of a niche sport in the US?

Yes and Yes, those numbers are terrible and over the last 23 years the NBA has went from competing for the 2nd biggest sport to a niche sport that a vast majority of the public don't follow. I rarely see anything NBA related outside of large cities where teams are located, 2 hours outside of that city you may go weeks without seeing any reference to the NBA. In some markets and a lot of out of markets areas it is arguable if the NBA is the 4th most popular of what was once the big 4 sports.

Since people are still trying to blame it on streaming, legal streaming has been counted in the ratings for the last couple of years. Illegal streaming is not going to account for millions of people, most illegal streams I have seen crash once you get more than 10,000 people on them.

[DarkAzcura]

Part of it is that NBA fans trend younger and don’t have typical means of watching through cable. The internet cable options have become super expensive the last couple years as well.

Other issue is that the media shoots themselves in the foot with their coverage. They need to take a page from the NFL book a bit more here. The whole year has just been Brooklyn and Lakers conversation and Harden/Simmons drama. Barely talked about Phoenix. Barely talked about the Celtics. Barely talked about the Bucks despite being defending champs. Barely talked about the Mavs. GSW got coverage but it was still a bit eh.

They need to stop trying to be so narrative focused and cover what’s actually happening. Most casual fans aren’t going to tune in when a couple ‘random’ teams make it to the conference finals and NBA finals. I saw it on this forum itself in the thread about how interesting these Finals are. Someone noted that they haven’t watched because there are no interesting storylines and not enough superstars. That’s all media crap/fluff, but unfortunately how the media covers a sport matters.

Boston/GSW should be an absolute knock out in ratings considering market size and historical context, but the national media has done an absolute crap job covering the NBA this year, focusing on meaningless storylines of mediocre teams.

[AdagioPace]

numbers were between 15-20m on average before Covid (especially Lebron vs Warriors saga). Lebron not being part of doesn't help either. Heck even Spurs vs Lebron managed to crack 15m on average. Of course we're talking about pre-streaming era

[matt6715]

Using TV ratings to gauge success in 2022 is laughable

Whatever awful primetime show is on CBS can be billed at the "most watched tv show blah blah" but we all know it means nothing at this point and where we are with internet/streaming.

[sp6r=underrated]

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/267349/Game-4-Of-NBA-Finals-Averages-23-Rating-795M-Viewers

The Golden State Warriors' 107-97 win over the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the NBA Finals averaged a 2.3 rating with 7.95 million viewers, according to early results.

question, aren't numbers like this incredibly low for a country the size of the US for such an important event?
I read the SuperBowl's numbers are like 100m+, but even a game like Juventus-Inter for the meaningless italian cup managed to total like 9m viewers in Italy, that has less than 20% of the population of the US.

Is basketball really that much of a niche sport in the US?

Outside of the NFL, TV ratings for everything in the US are basically terrible. MLB ratings have collapsed. NBA ratings have collapsed. Network tv shows ratings have collapsed. We've become a niche society.

[sp6r=underrated]

It’s so easy to stream any live sporting event online (for free)

And whats even funnier is that theres millions who STILL don't know how to access them.

In the aughts, I didn't have cable and streamed everything. It took time figuring out the sites but the cost savings were worth it. I was broke. And I was in my 20s at the cutting age of technology.

Now I'm middle aged. I have less energy than I used too and am clearly behind technology wise. I try my best to keep up but it does get harder each year. At my age I'd rather just pluck down cash for youtube tv than worry about downloading some virus onto my computer which used to happen all the time when I streamed

[BmanInBigD]

Seems to me like they have games only every 3 days. I know I've lost SOME interest just because there's too much time between games. I've always though they should try to wrap it up before Memorial Day or before kids all get out of school and start traveling/camps/etc.

[Pachinko_]

I don't care if it becomes a niche sport that only hardcore fans follow, in fact I'd probably prefer it to be honest.

[sp6r=underrated]

I don't care if it becomes a niche sport that only hardcore fans follow, in fact I'd probably prefer it to be honest.

I disagree on that. I follow some niche sports and it is nice when you can have casual conversations with real people about the game you watched last night. When a sport becomes a niche you lose out on that