Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings

[LockoutSeason]

Read on Twitter

[BigDan245]

Everybody crapped all over it a week before it even began. Of course game 1 was going to suck ratings wise.

[bkkrh]

Sometimes I wonder if on the TV rating boards they talk a lot about Basketball stats.

[Tony15]

Whatever....glad real NBA fans can enjoy the high level basketball being played.

Sent from my SM-S936U using RealGM mobile app

[adubmac]

As I'm not a stakeholder of the NBA, I'll take a game winner over a few more million eye balls watching the series.

[sikma42]

How does this acccoub t for streaming?


Sent from my iPhone using RealGM Forums

[bkkrh]

Also that graphic from the same article makes the writing style of it really look silly:



Kinda giving the impression that people mostly care to watch a good game and start to watch if they realize it's the case.

[Bank Shot]

Damn, I guess I can't enjoy the series now

[Texas Chuck]

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.

[Ugly0598]

Good. Mrs Indiana Pacer is gonna make everyone not watch.

[DavidSterned]

Not surprising with a Game 1 with two younger, small market teams that don't have an established media presence quite yet.

But I definitely do agree with Silver that it's really high time for the league and its media culture to evolve past this stupid and self-defeating fixation on market sizes. The product, in theory, should be able to transcend that like it does in other sports and for far too long the NBA and its fans have internalized this mindset that it's all that matters.

It'll definitely take some time since we still have the toxic douchers at ESPN rattling on about market sizes, but hopefully a series like this can eventually be a step towards that path.

[Domejandro]

This is actually a pretty big problem for the NBA. From my perspective, I think that the Finals have been horribly advertised. From talking heads **** on it, to the NBA not pushing it effectively, the League's reliance on big markets for viewership is not ideal.

[jkvonny]

It's a marketing issue. It doesn't help when you have buffoons at E$PN crapping on small/mid market teams. They need to learn how to promote. NBA has a lot of trendy types, casual fans as well. So the NBA needs to learn how to promote thier products to them.
I also remember when they would poop all over San Antonio/Detroit NBA Finals and the SA/Cleveland NBA Finals and others in the past. Why do that?? That's not helping any.

The NFL doesn't have this problem, regardless of market size.
Some of the smallest/mid markets draws huge crowds and viewership, lot of them are successful as well (Pittsburgh, Green Bay/Milwaukee, Minnesota, Cleveland, New Orleans, Buffalo, Kansas City, Denver, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, Tampa Bay, Miami, Detroit etc). They know how to promote their profuct, too. Also the NFL tends to have a lot more loyal die hards fan base compared to casual fans. But at the same time, the NFL draws a lot of casuals no matter the match ups.

But whatever, Indy/OKC seems to be a great series so far.

I think things will change, get better once NBC takes over.
TNT does well, tries their best.

[xBulletproof]

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.

First, higher TV revenue won't do anything to save us costs. The thing about stakeholders, they're greedy. They're going to already push the prices as high as the public will stomach regardless of anything else that happens.

Secondly, the TV deal runs through 2036 now. It's not changing anything, anytime soon anyway. That money is already coming in and won't change for a decade.

[MrBigShot]

It's 1 year. Oh well. Happy that a new team will win their first championship.

[Deathray]

The above graph tells me that the audience is probably primed to be consistently larger for game 2.

[Tim_Hardawayy]

This will be a very unpopular take for many posters here, but I think the NBA shot itself in the foot badly getting as political as it did during the covid years, and it might never recover from that.

[jkvonny]

This will be a very unpopular take for many posters here, but I think the NBA shot itself in the foot badly getting as political as it did during the covid years, and it might never recover from that.

That's a fair take.

Hate that some folks get too caught up into political stuff, but I could see how it did affect things overall.

[djsunyc]

This will be a very unpopular take for many posters here, but I think the NBA shot itself in the foot badly getting as political as it did during the covid years, and it might never recover from that.

they decided that this is the year they will not watch?

[HotelVitale]

Too bad, helluva game. Have to admit I don't see why people seem to take interest or joy/schadenfreude in stuff like this, NBA literally exists to entertain us and I really can't complain about the PO this year for that.