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The NBA isn’t surprised its TV ratings are way down. Radical change already was afoot

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...decline-explanation-espn-tnt-abc-adam-silver/

Giannis Antetokounmpo delivered the signature moment of the NBA season Thursday, one that was a long time coming.

The Milwaukee Bucks forward outdueled LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers in a matchup of the league’s two best teams and two most popular players. To cap the night, Antetokounmpo, the reigning MVP, celebrated a three-pointer by placing an invisible crown atop his head — a suggestion that he has displaced “King James” from basketball’s throne. Antetokounmpo’s provocative challenge to James drew millions of views on social media, and their superstar showdown averaged 2.8 million viewers on TNT, making it the NBA’s most-watched game since the season’s opening week.

Yet the NBA and its major television partners have found such banner performances elusive this season. Despite a scoring boom and an abundance of magnetic personalities such as Antetokounmpo and James, NBA ratings on ESPN and TNT, through mid-December, were down more than 15 percent compared with last year. That sharp dip has exacerbated one of the toughest stretches recently for the league, which has been rocked by high-profile injuries, the Hong Kong controversy and former commissioner David Stern’s brain hemorrhage.


Here is some of the reasons for the NBA Low ratings.
 
https://variety.com/2019/tv/news/tv-ratings-clippers-lakers-game-tops-christmas-day-1203451949/

And Here is the ratings for one of the Christmas NBA games


The crosstown match-up between the Los Angeles Clippers and Los Angeles Lakers — which saw the Clippers win 111-106 — scored a 1.8 rating and 5.6 million viewers, per preliminary data, taking ABC to an easy win on Christmas Day.

The Clippers-Lakers game was the second most-watched Christmas Day primetime game ever with 8.8 million viewers across ABC and ESPN, according to ESPN communications director Ben Cafardo.
 
Other than LeBron, who are these guys? Total lack of character development in the NBA.

Stephen A. Smith has more personality than any of the players.

If you don't have any stars, the only thing to root for is the city. What if your city isn't playing?
 
Other than LeBron, who are these guys? Total lack of character development in the NBA.

Stephen A. Smith has more personality than any of the players.

If you don't have any stars, the only thing to root for is the city. What if your city isn't playing?

Ever heard of Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Steph Curry, etc...? The NBA has plenty of star players. Leonard led Toronto to the championship last year, but unfortunately Toronto doesn't count in the Nielsen ratings.

The ratings for last night's LA vs LA game were huge. I don't think the NBA is hurting that much...
 
The ratings for last night's LA vs LA game were huge. I don't think the NBA is hurting that much...

Primetime? With no competition? College football would have drawn more viewers.

Compare the NBA's 5 million to the NFL's 18 million on Thanksgiving.
 
There is no entertainment in watching a 6'8" player dunk into a 10 foot basket or hearing a foul whistle blow every other play. Might as well have a coin toss decide the game instead of having the final 2 minutes take 20+ minutes to play.
 
Primetime? With no competition? College football would have drawn more viewers.

Compare the NBA's 5 million to the NFL's 18 million on Thanksgiving.

You do realize that NFL teams play ONE game per week and only 16 regular season games? The NBA is 82 regular season games. You are comparing apples to oranges...
 
Primetime? With no competition? College football would have drawn more viewers.

Compare the NBA's 5 million to the NFL's 18 million on Thanksgiving.

How did the NFL Network/local OTA NFL tripleheader of last Saturday do? Anywhere close to the NBA's Christmas number?

Good teams in Toronto and Milwaukee don't help the NBA's national ratings at all. I was surprised that the Raptors weren't screwed by the referees in last year's finals, but I guess Steph Curry didn't have the power to inspire the kind of complicity needed for the sort of dramatic, our-hero-emerges-triumphant ending that Silver and his predecessor Stern always used to manage to conjure out of Michael Jordan when he was dictating how the results should go. Milwaukee against LeBron's Lakers this year? Don't look for the small-market team to have much of a chance, especially if ratings have been down for the season.
 
I'm comparing two sports on holidays.

How often does the NBA completely own TV? Captive audience. And the best they can do is 5 million? Not much passion.

Again, your example is flawed. The game last night won its time slot vs everything else. The NBA is making plenty of money and not too concerned. LeBron and the Lakers missed the playoffs last year. The West is loaded, so the Clippers may be the LA team that's there at the end. Injuries have derailed Golden State.

What happened to all the rednecks who are supposed to be boycotting the NFL? They said they would never watch again because of the kneeling. People whine about bad officiating and still they watch. Rome had gladiators in the Coliseum and America has pro sports...
 
Again, your example is flawed.

I get it. You are a basketball fan. Don't let that override the facts.

The game last night won its time slot vs everything else.

Big deal. Nothing on but Christmas specials and reruns. That is hardly competition.

What happened to all the rednecks who are supposed to be boycotting the NFL? They said they would never watch again because of the kneeling. People whine about bad officiating and still they watch. Rome had gladiators in the Coliseum and America has pro sports...

So, all NFL fans are rednecks? NASCAR is sure going to be disappointed to hear that.

The media blew up the kneeling thing. Most fans couldn't care less.....unless they wanted a reason to boo the 49ers. Anyway, not relevant any longer.

Bad officiating? The NBA holds the record for that. Not even close.

Pro sports equals gladiators? Your logic is totally screwed.
 
The media didn't blow up the kneeling incident. They just reported it. Many fans on social media reacted with all kinds of racist invective. Ultimately, ratings are still sky high for the NFL(in spite of constant fan whining about the refs ruining the game).

Expecting a regular season NBA game to match an NFL game in ratings is not realistic. Obviously, you don't like the NBA. Many people do and the league is not exactly struggling...
 
I get it. You are a basketball fan. Don't let that override the facts.



Big deal. Nothing on but Christmas specials and reruns. That is hardly competition.



So, all NFL fans are rednecks? NASCAR is sure going to be disappointed to hear that.

The media blew up the kneeling thing. Most fans couldn't care less.....unless they wanted a reason to boo the 49ers. Anyway, not relevant any longer.

Bad officiating? The NBA holds the record for that. Not even close.

Pro sports equals gladiators? Your logic is totally screwed.
NASCAR is hemorrhaging viewers, they are seeing major declines. The problem with the NBA is the major marquee players are on the west coast. Plus people don't really care about the NBA until the playoffs and finals. Not to mention most of the games are at night on cable. The NBA doesn't have a network presence until after the NFL and college football are over.
 
NASCAR is hemorrhaging viewers, they are seeing major declines. The problem with the NBA is the major marquee players are on the west coast. Plus people don't really care about the NBA until the playoffs and finals. Not to mention most of the games are at night on cable. The NBA doesn't have a network presence until after the NFL and college football are over.

what happened to NASCAR was a combo of a recession killed their boom, sponsors left because the sport became to expensive to advertise on the moving billboards known as race cars, Brian France finding ways to make the sport exciting after the 2003 championship was won was before the final race of the season by introducing the playoffs in 2004, not to mention his dad Bill Jr was responsible for it's boom resulting in the loss of North Wilkesboro Speedway while pissed some southern fans off (their key fan based) then the 2004 decision to end the Cup Series racing at North Carolina Speedway aka The Rock as well as taking away a second race from Darlington Speedway and before that ended the labor day Southern 500 tradition by moving it to November. (while Darlington ain't gotten back it's second race, NASCAR brought the Southern 500 name back in 2009 after not being called the Southern 500 from 2005-2008 as the 400 mile race was the race that the did away with while retaining the sponsor for that race, Dodge which sponsored the 400 mile race from 2001 to it's final race in 2003, and then moved it back to the traditional labor day weekend date in 2015 and it's now NASCAR's annual "throwback" race with classic schemes on the modern race cars) over a lawsuit over Texas Motor Speedway being promised a second race by NASCAR, said lawsuit gave Texas it's second race in the fall starting with the 2005 fall race. also Brian ended up being forced out of NASCAR in late 2018 after getting arrested for a DUI and having a addiction to painkillers. and also, the drivers from the boom era of the late 90s/early 2000s started to retire in this past decade.
 
what happened to NASCAR was....

The thing I hear from the die-hard fans (who are still fans but they don't attend anymore) is that they weren't allowed to bring their Winnebago and camp out in the middle of the track any more. Safety had become an issue. Not to mention insurance. People had been hurt from flying car parts. Once that social aspect went away, and they were just another fan sitting in the stands, it was less fun. I get that. Seeing the race from inside the track is a great experience. I did it once at the Atlanta Super Speedway. I'll never forget being that close to the action. I didn't do the camping thing, though. Just a media pass.
 
The media didn't blow up the kneeling incident. They just reported it.

"Reporting" it day after day (week after week would be a better and more accurate measurement) is blowing it up, not reporting. Media is always looking for ways for the news to pump up viewership and the 49ers QB was a perfect storm. The media made the most of it. If you were a 49er fan you didn't give a crap. If you weren't then it was just one more thing to paste the team as degenerate. Either way, the media made way more of it than it was worth.
 
NASCAR is hemorrhaging viewers, they are seeing major declines.

I am one of those. After following NASCAR since the early 70's I no longer prioritize a NASCAR race over anything else. If I'm home and have nothing else to do I might watch but it isn't "must see TV" any longer.

The reasons are many but the major one is that the "color" that the old school drivers, teams and owners brought to NASCAR have vanished. Now we have PC respectable drivers and car chiefs that are as colorless as your nightly news anchor. NASCAR continually tweaks the rules making the cars so vanilla that passing is almost impossible unless you have a partner and every wandering hot dog wrapper is a yellow flag. Almost half the tracks are identical 1.5 milers and the racing is boring. Not enough road courses and it seems the same 5-6 drivers are the only ones with the chance to win any specific race. I'd rather go to my local dirt track and dodge dirt clods. Significant, is the cost to attend any of these races. No longer can I take my boys and spend the day at the track for less than a few hundred bucks. It just isn't worth it any longer.
 
The NBA's biggest problem right now is the league only focuses on about 3-4 teams. Listen to any of the national sports radio shows today and the talk is entirely about the Lakers, the Clippers, the Bucks, and the Celtics. Maybe a passing mention of the Nuggets or the Heat, but really not much. And really after LA, it isn't even close. This is the way to reduce a league down to little or no interest, IMO. The way to make this league great again is to encouarage competition. I don't know if they know how to do it. I believe this is the reason the league is struggling in ratings.
 
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