ellobo wrote:I do not get the programming strategy of scheduling two games opposite the NFL.
I'm inferring they think their audience is not necessarily NFL fans (mostly male mainstream sports fans), and they probably have market research to base it on, hence counterprogramming.
However, an anticipated Finals matchup between two "super teams" seems like a great opportunity to hype the league and bring in new fans, which they won't if those new fans are all watching the NFL. So they're basically writing off the whole male sports audience (with a few exceptions, such as myself and some of you all).
I'd at least try give game 1 the clearest slot with the least sports competition and hype the hell out of it to try to get as many new people checking it out as possible, so they might get hooked on the series and perhaps the league in general.
Yeah for me it's the week or so off between rounds, too, from a competitive juices standpoint.
Part of it may be when arenas area available as well, and tv scheduling deals.
And lastly, like you said, perhaps the audiences don't overlap. There's certainly more interest in NFL from WNBA family than vice versa just from casual observation but hopefully I'm wrong and it changes to interest in both over time.
One thing about football diehards, whether the North American or European variety, is that any other sport is a distant second.
So it's less an attempt of biting into that market and more a chance to see what the existing market is alongside a juggernaut.