NBA viewership down

[sashaturiaf]

It's the long term fallout from the superteam, load managing, "I'm a brand not an athlete era". Things like resilience, competitiveness, camaraderie and loyalty which some people actually watch team sports for is non existent.

The perception is the players are a bunch of mercenaries that only care about their own brands and "legacies", the jersey they wear on their back is just a convenience.

[Gusto1903]

Nobody cares about the Regular season, and it has been like this for a long time. 82 games ist too much

[NZB2323]

No it’s American ratings being used and the point would be better to use WW ratings. Also let’s face it a lot of white MAGA refuse to watch the NBA now because of the George Floyd protests. I know a number of these people personally.

I’m not saying this is a solution but I thought it was weird the NBA shut down because of George Floyd but was silent when it came to Roger Fortson.

As a non American, I’ve never even heard of Roger Fortson

Yeah, I’m surprised it didn’t get more coverage.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Roger_Fortson

It was the same police department where an officer discharged his entire magazine into his own police car which had a handcuffed unarmed black man who the officer had searched inside because the police officer heard an acorn fall on his car and thought it was a shot.

[JM00n69]

It's a case of poor marketing decisions for years by the NBA and the main sports media outlets being lazy and going for the easy LAL/LBJ/GWS talking points when they should've years ago given more coverage to the rising stars.

Giannis/Luka and Jokic are all having all time individual seasons. And they are not boring to watch and all give plenty of highlights to use and create a storyline for the season. CAVS/OKC/BOS all have stacked teams with players that compliment each other. Good coaching/high ambitions. Can't find a way to market that either? West is deeper and more competitive than it's been in nearly 20years. Can't find find a way to market that either.

**** it, Bronny scored a 30 piece in the GLeague so run that as front page news. Oh and Lebron took a few days off for personal reasons. Is Embiid back yet because we're out of material?

[Sofia]

I’m not saying this is a solution but I thought it was weird the NBA shut down because of George Floyd but was silent when it came to Roger Fortson.

As a non American, I’ve never even heard of Roger Fortson

Yeah, I’m surprised it didn’t get more coverage.



https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Roger_Fortson

It was the same police department where an officer discharged his entire magazine into his own police car which had a handcuffed unarmed black man who the officer had searched inside because the police officer heard an acorn fall on his car and thought it was a shot.

ah I heard of that and heard the bodycam footage on a podcast. Didn’t know the name though

[Charlie Sollers]

It's a case of poor marketing decisions for years by the NBA and the main sports media outlets being lazy and going for the easy LAL/LBJ/GWS talking points when they should've years ago given more coverage to the rising stars.

Giannis/Luka and Jokic are all having all time individual seasons. And they are not boring to watch and all give plenty of highlights to use and create a storyline for the season. CAVS/OKC/BOS all have stacked teams with players that compliment each other. Good coaching/high ambitions. Can't find a way to market that either? West is deeper and more competitive than it's been in nearly 20years. Can't find find a way to market that either.

**** it, Bronny scored a 30 piece in the GLeague so run that as front page news. Oh and Lebron took a few days off for personal reasons. Is Embiid back yet because we're out of material?

You would think RealGM would be a place for hardcore fans but even here there's constant Bronny, LeBron, Laker threads.

[stillgotgame]

Doris Burke and Richard Jefferson are the broadcast team for a big game? No wonder ratings are down.

[magee]

Modern society and technology crave instant gratification. Between that and the game evolving to runs of players just jacking 3's, it can be dull to someone trying to watch the game and not understanding nuances of both offenses and defenses.

[zeebneeb]

Modern society and technology crave instant gratification. Between that and the game evolving to runs of players just jacking 3's, it can be dull to someone trying to watch the game and not understanding nuances of both offenses and defenses.

Nuances? There are none in todays NBA. This isn't old man yelling at clouds, its just straight boring to watch.

Screw the analytics guys, its just not that entertaining to watch, and I am a heavy, heavy consumer of NBA games. I'm talking 3-5 a night when available. The similarities in teams these days, is absurd.

The game needs to change, and soon. Amongst all the ideas I've seen, eliminating the corner three is the best one. It'll open up the floor, and allowing more back door cuts.

[Sofia]

It's a case of poor marketing decisions for years by the NBA and the main sports media outlets being lazy and going for the easy LAL/LBJ/GWS talking points when they should've years ago given more coverage to the rising stars.

Giannis/Luka and Jokic are all having all time individual seasons. And they are not boring to watch and all give plenty of highlights to use and create a storyline for the season. CAVS/OKC/BOS all have stacked teams with players that compliment each other. Good coaching/high ambitions. Can't find a way to market that either? West is deeper and more competitive than it's been in nearly 20years. Can't find find a way to market that either.

**** it, Bronny scored a 30 piece in the GLeague so run that as front page news. Oh and Lebron took a few days off for personal reasons. Is Embiid back yet because we're out of material?

You would think RealGM would be a place for hardcore fans but even here there's constant Bronny, LeBron, Laker threads.

Those threads usually aren’t started by admirers though

[marson]

Lebron left the Lakers, no one knows where he is, and it’s barely received any coverage. The NBA is barely relevant at the moment. If this were MJ in the 90’s it would be 24-7 speculation.

The amount of entertainment available today compared to the 90s is overwhelming.

Now we have Social media, Netflix, gaming, YouTube, and even OnlyFans, lol.

In the 90s, it was mostly just the NBA and newspapers—there wasn’t much else to keep you occupied.

[FarBeyondDriven]

Lebron left the Lakers, no one knows where he is, and it’s barely received any coverage. The NBA is barely relevant at the moment. If this were MJ in the 90’s it would be 24-7 speculation.

The amount of entertainment available today compared to the 90s is overwhelming.

Now we have Social media, Netflix, gaming, YouTube, and even OnlyFans, lol.

In the 90s, it was mostly just the NBA and newspapers—there wasn’t much else to keep you occupied.

the 90s wasn't the stone ages. The other leagues (NHL, MLB, Nascar) were much bigger. We had blockbuster, keggers at the power lines, movies, TV, concerts, beach, etc. People have to stop making excuses for the NBA's failing product.

[nbanflguy]

Honestly the culture of basketball is just broken. Male and female. The media, the players, the coaches, the owners, the fans, even the video games, etc. it’s all toxic.

[Seabass11]

I agree with a lot of people saying the on court product sucks, too many threes, load MGMT etc...

Just spit balling here and have no stats to back this up but I also think it's just the general direction of American culture is changing. This election told us one big thing...no one gives af about celebrities and athletes anymore. I think society is coming to the conclusion that its kind of sad that these ppl play a game for a living and make millions doing so, meanwhile a large portion of the country is struggling hard. The allure is running out across the entertainment industry as a whole and somehow it seems the football has really been the only industry able to side step it...

[LockoutSeason]

Lebron left the Lakers, no one knows where he is, and it’s barely received any coverage. The NBA is barely relevant at the moment. If this were MJ in the 90’s it would be 24-7 speculation.

The amount of entertainment available today compared to the 90s is overwhelming.

Now we have Social media, Netflix, gaming, YouTube, and even OnlyFans, lol.

In the 90s, it was mostly just the NBA and newspapers—there wasn’t much else to keep you occupied.

the 90s wasn't the stone ages. The other leagues (NHL, MLB, Nascar) were much bigger. We had blockbuster, keggers at the power lines, movies, TV, concerts, beach, etc. People have to stop making excuses for the NBA's failing product.

“The other leagues were much bigger”

Sounds like you just found your answer. All of the leagues have declined in ratings since the ‘90s except the NFL (and even the NFL is declining locally).

NHL ratings are down 24% this year, yet for some reason doesn’t get the same publicity as the NBA.

This might be a little hard for older people to understand, but TV ratings are not a relevant barometer of success anymore.

[Scoundreldays]

There's a lack of a villain team that people want to root against ala Heatles or KD Warriors. Hate to say it but parity has made the league a little bland.

[DCasey91]

TV is going in the way of the newspaper imo, there's your biggest problem. Add on the capital greed for adertisement watching a game on tv is like committing to all the crap that goes with it.

And lol 90's wasn't the Stone Age. Cinema like TV next was the bees knees. Titanic was 97.

Of course it's nostalgia but late 90's early 00's was awesome all round.

Nowadays were all mini brained on tech it's more personalised, whereas NBA has lost it's personality. I do also think a game that's hard solved definitely makes it less interesting for the majority of viewers.

Poker, Chess, Sports in general it's all systematic once it's solved that's it you can't put the cat back into the bag

All my stuff is ancient yet I can turn my living room into a damn performance theatre of entertainment in like 5mins if that.

Look at how long ago Iron Man came out and look at the joke Marvel is today.

The fortunate and unfornunate thing is we have a million choices to keep us amused.

TV can't keep up with way better avenues for our attention, simple. I bet bottom dollar YouTube for applicable audience demographics kills TV viewing time. Look at the ads, only a matter of time before something better comes along to supersede, we talk about what is happening in reality online.

[FAH1223]

Ratings will go up slightly next year when games that are on TNT right now will be airing on NBC over the air.

Amazon Prime games will also draw good numbers...

[jbk1234]

Read on Twitter

ESPN is the only network with an NBA contract that doesn't make games available on a standalone streaming service. It's the only network whose NBA ratings are down.

The old delivery service of cable that guaranteed carriage fees for the networks is no longer viable. It's not the NBA. It's not just sports. Cable news is dying as well.

[Clemenza]

Lebron left the Lakers, no one knows where he is, and it’s barely received any coverage. The NBA is barely relevant at the moment. If this were MJ in the 90’s it would be 24-7 speculation.

The amount of entertainment available today compared to the 90s is overwhelming.

Now we have Social media, Netflix, gaming, YouTube, and even OnlyFans, lol.

In the 90s, it was mostly just the NBA and newspapers—there wasn’t much else to keep you occupied.

the 90s wasn't the stone ages. The other leagues (NHL, MLB, Nascar) were much bigger. We had blockbuster, keggers at the power lines, movies, TV, concerts, beach, etc. People have to stop making excuses for the NBA's failing product.

True but the younger kids don't watch sports like how we used to while growing up. Most of us watched NBA, NFL, and MLB religiously, then we tried to emulate them on the playground and on the court. These kids are watching streamers play video games and Youtube, Tik Tok, and want to be influencers. No NBA excuses, but its a much different era now. It was simpler back in the late 80's and 90's.