"The revenue that comes from people enjoying our games, who are not in the stadium, I don't think that is going to bust. Team revenues linked to local TV media deals would suffer and exposure would drop, creating a sort of downward spiral.īut Clippers owner Steve Ballmer didn't seem worried about the state of cable TV when he spoke to CNBC last month. As more people abandon cable, regional sports networks could see their audiences collapse. The NBA's national media rights are tied to its high franchise values. Silver also warned the cable TV business model could break as cord-cutting increases. The 2018 series, between the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers (where James then played) averaged 17.6 million in four games, and the five-game series in 2017 between the same two teams averaged 20.4 million viewers. (Scheduling may have played a factor, as fewer people were watching TV this July, the NBA says.)Īnd that was a decline from previous years. But it was way down from the six-game series between the Warriors and Toronto Raptors in 2019, which averaged 15.1 million viewers. That was up 32% from the 2020 NBA bubble Finals featuring the Lakers and Miami Heat, which averaged 7.5 million viewers. July's Bucks versus Phoenix Suns NBA Finals averaged 9.9 million viewers overall. The last time the two teams were featured was in a game for a playoff spot in May, and the contest averaged 5.6 million viewers.īut the league's biggest event is the NBA Finals, and the last two years' results were way down. Silver's league could achieve that number with the TNT broadcast of the Lakers playing the Golden State Warriors, featuring the league's two biggest superstars, James and Steph Curry. That number comes from the NBA's last regular opener in October 2019, when the Lakers played the Clippers and averaged 3.58 million viewers on TNT. On Tuesday, the NBA will see if any one of its games will surpass 3.5 million viewers. That included a Christmas game between the Los Angeles Lakers, who have the NBA's biggest star in LeBron James, and the Dallas Mavericks, with rising star Luka Doncic, that averaged 7 million viewers. The NBA's last opening week started late December 2020 because of the pandemic. The NBA wants to triple its rights fee, so a bounce-back in viewership would help. That's a problem if " generally 99%" of NBA fans "never step foot in an NBA arena," as the league said in the past. Silver told the crowd last Tuesday that the NBA's overall viewership is down. The NHL increased its rights, too, thanks to NBA partners ESPN and AT&T 's WarnerMedia. The NBA watched the NFL capture an eleven-year deal worth more than $100 billion deal last summer. TV viewership will be essential for Silver's league as it returns to a standard 82-game format.
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