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Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:02 pm
by LockoutSeason
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:11 pm
by BigDan245
Everybody crapped all over it a week before it even began. Of course game 1 was going to suck ratings wise.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:14 pm
by bkkrh
Sometimes I wonder if on the TV rating boards they talk a lot about Basketball stats.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:14 pm
by Tony15
Whatever....glad real NBA fans can enjoy the high level basketball being played.
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Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:14 pm
by 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.
Re: Game [emoji238[emoji645]] of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:15 pm
by sikma42
How does this acccoub t for streaming?
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Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:17 pm
by 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.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:17 pm
by Bank Shot
Damn, I guess I can't enjoy the series now
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:26 pm
by 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.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:26 pm
by Ugly0598
Good. Mrs Indiana Pacer is gonna make everyone not watch.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:32 pm
by 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.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:32 pm
by 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.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:33 pm
by 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.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:39 pm
by xBulletproof
Texas Chuck wrote: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.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:42 pm
by MrBigShot
It's 1 year. Oh well. Happy that a new team will win their first championship.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:45 pm
by Deathray
The above graph tells me that the audience is probably primed to be consistently larger for game 2.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:51 pm
by 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.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Fri Jun 6, 2025 11:54 pm
by jkvonny
Tim_Hardawayy wrote: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.
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Sat Jun 7, 2025 12:00 am
by djsunyc
Tim_Hardawayy wrote: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?
Re: Game 1 of the Finals posts horrific TV ratings
Posted: Sat Jun 7, 2025 12:01 am
by 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.