Posted on 12/27/2017 5:53:02 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
While the NFL gets socked with ratings declines, the NBA is off to its second-most-watched season ever.
ESPN, which has telecast 30 games since the season’s Oct. 17 opener, said Thursday that average viewership has soared 18 percent, to 1.8 million a game, from this point last year.
TNT, with 16 NBA telecasts to date, said its average is up 25 percent, to 2.1 million viewers. Even NBA TV, with 41 telecasts, is up 25 percent, to 365,000.
The averages, taken collectively, make for the hottest start since the 2010-11 season — the year LeBron James abandoned the Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat.
Central to the NBA’s rise is its success in focusing the league’s many dramas on the game itself — an area where the NFL has failed miserably, experts say.
“NBA stars don’t wear helmets, so fans think they know them better by watching their features and their gestures,” said Ben Sturner, president of sports marketer Leverage Agency. “This sense of familiarity plays really well with the social media set.”
Meanwhile, the NFL is being penalized for a lack of focus, according to Sturner.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
I started boycotting the NFL last year at Game 2 of the season, (Had to watch my Bucs in the first game of the year) and have continued this year. That said:
BOYCOTT THE NFL!!!™...FOREVER!!!
The NBA has lots of rookies and lottery picks that are playing effectively for their rookie season which has amped up the excitement.
The players still lock arms during the national anthem but none have been kneeling.
People can go from MLB to the NBA and totally avoid those spoiled lowlifes and their enablers who spit in the face of our values. Who would’ve thought that the NBA is smarter about not offending fans than the NFL has been?
Up 25% to less than 1/5 of a non-prime time NFL game. Scale is important.
Not me. Thanks to LaBum.
I don’t know anyone who watches the NFL anymore.
It will go out of existence within 5 years, and good riddance to it
I don’t care for basketball, but the NBA was at least smart enough to get language inserted in their CBA that requires all players to stand for the anthem.
I think basketball has been identified as a “black” sport whereas football has not although a majority of its players are black. Why has the NBA not reached the anthem kneeling stage yet. Maybe because of the realization that their audiences are tenuous and all it will take is a few kneelers for the booing at their affront to be heard in a enclosed arena and a large portion of their white audience to disappear. Then goodbye million dollar salary,
Adam Silver issued a memo before the season began and he went on TV to say it would not be happening.
Puzzling??? the NBA is where the idea of Thugs playing pro sports began, they were the First to get turned off many many years ago by me.
Because anthem behavior is actually in their rule book, Stern put it in over a decade ago, same time he put in the dress code for when they’re arriving at the arena.
While the NFL has diminished its product by effectively removing punt and kickoff returns, requiring endless officiating stoppages and huddles on EVERY penalty, increasing commercial airtime, and declining quality of play, the NBA has improved their product in one respect.
With more teams adopting a European style of play (more three point shooting, better ball movement, faster pace), the game has become slightly more interesting, slightly.
The game hit its lowest point for me, at least, in the days when Shaq would park himself in the lane, shove his ass into his defenders, and committing seven uncalled offensive fouls while he backed into the basket, getting intentionally fouled, and then missing two free throws.
Hated that style of play.
What about Mr. BBB?
I stopped watching the NFL last September...highly unlikely I'll ever go back.
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