The NBA recently signed $77 billion worth of television and streaming deals with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon. The NBA’s recent implementation of the Emirates NBA Cup was an attempt to boost its sluggish regular season with a brand-new, in-season tournament. The implementation was also an attempt to encourage its players to take regular season games more seriously and increase its chances of increased viewership among viewers from all walks of life. The NBA’s attempt hasn’t quite taken off. Will viewership improve soon?
2024 Emirates NBA Cup Viewership
The 2024 Emirates NBA Cup viewership has dropped 10% from the 2023 NBA Cup, also known as the inaugural regular-season tournament, with an average of 1.5 million viewers on TNT and just a little over 1.16 million on ESPN. Of course, a slight dip in viewership is concerning, but the increase in concern for the non-viewers is arguably unnecessary, as the focus should shift to the viewers who aren’t watching the 2024 NBA Cup.
There has been an astonishing amount of chatter on social media, with some individuals asking if the NBA is dead. The NBA is far from dead, despite the decreased 2024 NBA Cup viewership. The NBA isn’t in the middle of a difficult sports television broadcast deal discussion, and the NBA’s current ratings aren’t concerning enough to question if the league should stay or go.
2024-25 NBA Season Viewership
The 2024-25 NBA regular season viewership has dropped 28% from the 2023-24 NBA regular season. The NBA has already come off a disappointing season with a dismal postseason viewership of a more than 12% decrease. However, the NBA still convinced three broadcast partners to overpay for a sports television broadcast that has arguably declined.
The three broadcast partners — Amazon, ESPN, and NBC — are probably not pleased with their return on investment (ROI), but there’s not much they can do. According to the Wall Street Journal, there are already “executives inside NBCUniversal” who believe the company paid too much for its upcoming NBA package of $2.5 billion a year.
NBA’s Popularity Declines
The NBA isn’t at risk of closing up shop anytime soon. But the NBA’s popularity has declined significantly with around a 48% decrease since 2012. There isn’t a single reason behind the NBA’s decline, but a few reasons are a political league, the unimportance of the regular season, players who don’t take the game seriously, small market teams’ struggles to compete, a lack of star power, and some games similar to three-point shooting contests.
OutKick’s Joe Kinsey recently shared his opinion of the NBA to the public. Kinsey wrote, “The NBA is unwatchable garbage” and cited DimeDropper’s recent post on X, formerly Twitter, that read, “This sequence” with a brief, controversial video clip of a recent Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns game at the Footprint Center in downtown Phoenix.
Kinsey’s recent opinion is subjective, but Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal would reportedly agree with Kinsey. O’Neal, 52, took to his podcast “The Big Podcast With Shaq“ earlier this month, saying, “I have a theory that [the ratings] are down because … everybody’s running the same plays … I don’t mind Golden State back in the day shooting threes, but every team is not a three-point shooter.”
Final Thoughts
There’s an eight-game slate of NBA games tonight starting with the Indiana Pacers at the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philadelphia at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. There’s a selection of games to choose from for the NBA’s viewers. NBA viewership has decreased nationally but has seen an increase among local markets such as the Milwaukee Bucks, Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, and Dallas Mavericks.
