RealGM

https://awfulannouncing.com/nba/opening-night-ratings-first-week-fell.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Aside from opening night:

Ratings were up 7% on opening night. Then dipped on Wed. Probably just the games? That ESPN doubleheader on Wed wasn't a good one with all the injuries. More complete story:

NBA Ratings For Opening Night Up Seven Percent Before Year-Over-Year Drop On Wednesday, Thursday

https://basketball.realgm.com/wiretap/277851/NBA-Ratings-For-Opening-Night-Up-Seven-Percent-Before-Year-Over-Year-Drop-On-Wednesday-Thursday

So Celtics Knicks have more fans than Bucks and 76ers and Wemby was a big show? Wake me when you have something interesting.

I mean... The product hasn't been entertaining recently...

- Have to imagine baseball, with big markets in the playoffs is leeching off some of the viewership
- NBA makes it incredibly hard to watch its product, whether it be blackouts, or league pass just being horrible, or screaming analysis by the media which might make for a nice temporary spike in viewership but turns off loyalists like myself. I have less than zero interest in hot takes.
- The NBA is just not very good right now, compared to previous eras. High end competition is just practically non existent.
- The officiating is just abhorrent. Inconsistent application of the rules. Special treatment for certain players. High variable in rules from game to game. Its just mind numbingly stupid.
- Cord cut, a lot of people like to watch content on their schedule and not live.

Wonder why Bucks vs Sixers on night 2 might've been a weak draw?

Huge Sixers fan and I didn't even watch it.

Karate Diop wrote:I mean... The product hasn't been entertaining recently...

It's better than the last couple of years imo

Potential wrote:

Read on Twitter

https://awfulannouncing.com/nba/opening-night-ratings-first-week-fell.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

Aside from opening night:

Read on Twitter

Online illegal streams going crazy

How fitting, performance drop after signing a long term contract...

The NBA like all things is a product and it’s just not a great product at the moment. There’s no all-time great right now aside from Jokic (who is boring off and on the court to casuals). There’s no Kobe, Lebron, Curry or Durant type player now. Overall talent is really good but top end talent is not as good. Plus alot of other great content out there basketball is entertainment to most and there’s lots of content out there to be entertained by

Karate Diop wrote:I mean... The product hasn't been entertaining recently...

Sixers in 4 wrote:Spamming 3's and a regular season that is meaningless. If football is on I'll tune off. It is what is Silver has allowed the game to be a boring spamfest.

Tempe wrote:Blaming illegal streaming is a cope. The folks on this board and Reddit who use those sites are not representative. NFL, MLB, NHL, and WNBA ratings all up despite facing the same secular decline in linear TV as the NBA.

The TV product is terrible as a whole. The on court play as well as the announcers, production, half time shows. Off court the players are unrelatable to your average fan. The era of manufactured drama and player movement is boring now too.

Silver better hope the upcoming draft classes can give the NBA its Caitlin Clark. Flagg, Bailey, Dybantsa, the Boozer twins etc can help

Johnny Fontane wrote:Like baseball, basketball has become an easy sport to tune out

nomansland wrote:I wouldn't have thought so many 3's in a game could make basketball boring, but it kind of does. Even if it's a good shot you kind of just shrug.

JN61 wrote:Not surprised. The product is just bad. All the 3 point chucking, no defense allowed nonsense. Casual fans are picking it up at last.

druggas wrote:The product is no bueno.

JT3000 wrote:Viewership is down? That's really weird. It doesn't have anything to do with them giving local broadcast rights to channels with limited availability which expect you to pay $20 a month just to watch that one channel, does it? I mean who would possibly have a problem with that? I'm sure giving all of the nationally televised games to teams that are well into their decline isn't a factor either. I mean who doesn't love has-beens? Start including some musical interludes here and there and I'm sure VH1 would be more than happy to show some games.

Jta444 wrote:The NBA like all things is a product and it’s just not a great product at the moment. There’s no all-time great right now aside from Jokic (who is boring off and on the court to casuals). There’s no Kobe, Lebron, Curry or Durant type player now. Overall talent is really good but top end talent is not as good. Plus alot of other great content out there basketball is entertainment to most and there’s lots of content out there to be entertained by

LarsV8 wrote:- Have to imagine baseball, with big markets in the playoffs is leeching off some of the viewership
- The NBA is just not very good right now, compared to previous eras. High end competition is just practically non existent.
- The officiating is just abhorrent. Inconsistent application of the rules. Special treatment for certain players. High variable in rules from game to game. Its just mind numbingly stupid..

Milenkovic wrote:Tv as a whole is just a dying platform, with streaming, illegal streaming all constructs to take into account. Also, fans are just fatigued of watching the same 3-4 teams weekly, and talked about on mainstream outlets. The ESPN model of talking only about certain teams in all leagues has become beyond played out and boring. Although once it mightve been a ratings winner, there's only so many times you can talk about the same thing.

ChiTownHero1992 wrote: I got bored and changed the channel just reading that...lol....the defense was top notch!

No need to hunt around for explanations or use this to have your biases/gripes confirmed yet, this is a poorly named thread and the evidence isn't saying what the title is. The stats OP links to just say that opening night viewership was up from last year (7%), while the second night's national games were down quite a bit from last year. But the articles go on to point out that second night was also just bad games: 2023 was Celtics vs Knicks, 2024 was Bucks who did nothing last year vs Sixers without Embiid+PG, and the later game was Clips-Suns without Kawhi + PG and after Suns disappointing last season.

Also the numbers this year were better than in 2022, and as the tweet says 2023 was headlined by Wemby's debut that sent ratings way up to unusual numbers. Seems like that's the story here--2023 and Wemby were out of the norm, and not this year's ratings. So overall this isn't even trying to argue or offer evidence that viewership in general is way down.

The main article that OP linked to puts this into context clearly too: "viewership this early in the season is small potatoes. The NBA should be in good shape from a viewership perspective this year after announcing all five Christmas Day games will be simulcast on ABC. That alone should help boost regular season viewership versus last year when only two of five games were simulcast." I don't know if that's gonna end up right but it's literally the conclusion that the OP's only real source points us to.

They reverted right back to the nonsense officiating. Sixers and Raptors combined for 99 free throws the other night.

Like baseball, basketball has become an easy sport to tune out

Spamming 3's and a regular season that is meaningless. If football is on I'll tune off. It is what is Silver has allowed the game to be a boring spamfest.

The NBA just signed a huge TV deal, they'll be alright. They need to start showcasing other teams, every other night the Suns, Lakers or Warriors are on, the Magic have a young star that never plays on TV.

It’s more about the team they put on there and the injuries on this small sample size

I can tell ya firsthand the viewership in Utah is way, way down. Nobody watching this crap product Ainge is trying to sell us. Even the players on the team are tuning out.

dhsilv2 wrote:So Celtics Knicks have more fans than Bucks and 76ers and Wemby was a big show? Wake me when you have something interesting.

not to mention the Sixers are missing their 2 best players, who was going to tune into that?

Jta444 wrote:The NBA like all things is a product and it’s just not a great product at the moment. There’s no all-time great right now aside from Jokic (who is boring off and on the court to casuals). There’s no Kobe, Lebron, Curry or Durant type player now. Overall talent is really good but top end talent is not as good. Plus alot of other great content out there basketball is entertainment to most and there’s lots of content out there to be entertained by

3 of those guys are still in the league. Jokic and Giannis are both 2x MVP's. And...Luka looks to be another all time great. We might have more all time greats still playing than ever before.

Oh and there's that Wemby guy...he might be good.

And I haven't even had to mention Harden, Leonard, Embiid, SGA, Edwards....and whoever I'm forgetting because this league is that stinking loaded with old and young talent alike.

dhsilv2 wrote:3 of those guys are still in the league. Jokic and Giannis are both 2x MVP's. And...Luka looks to be another all time great. We might have more all time greats still playing than ever before.

Oh and there's that Wemby guy...he might be good.

It's an American audience though and none of those guys are American.