Rumors

Central to that reticence is the league’s new 11-year, $76 billion media rights deal, beginning next season, with new partners NBC, Peacock – NBC’s streaming service – and Amazon Prime, along with existing partners ABC and ESPN. Warner Bros. Discovery, which had broadcast NBA games since 1989, was left out of the new deal. Several owners would, at present, rather begin collecting and splitting the massive new revenues among the existing teams, rather than bringing in new partners that would also receive a cut of the financial pie.

New York Times

To start the week, my colleague Austin Karp has some takes on recent viewership figures: This was the second year that the NBA Draft was a two-day affair, and excluding the pandemic years, it was among the lowest NBA Draft audiences on record (a sharp drop for the first round being the main culprit). The full two nights across ESPN and ABC averaged just under 2.6 million viewers, which is down 5% from last year. Back in 2021, with the draft pushed into mid-July by COVID, it averaged 2.26 million. In 2020, when the draft was in November due to COVID (and without an ABC telecast), it averaged 2.13 million. With records dating back to 2008, no other NBA Draft was under 2.6 million viewers.

Sports Business Journal

Viewers turned out for the top of a stacked NBA Draft class, but did not stick around for the full three-hour show. Wednesday’s opening round of the NBA Draft, in which Cooper Flagg was selected first overall by the Dallas Mavericks, averaged 3.77 million viewers across ABC and ESPN — down 14% from last year, when the draft class was considered particularly low-profile (4.41M).

Sports Media Watch

Scott Agness: ABC sideline reporter Lisa Salters returns tonight to the NBA Finals broadcast after being away due to personal reasons.

Twitter

Andrew Marchand: ESPN/ABC may have to produce Game 2 of the NBA Finals remotely because of a tornado warning in OKC. Mike Breen & company will still be commenting from court side but the production trucks outside the arena may not be available. ESPN would control the pictures and productions from either Bristol or LA.

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An overlap of the Women’s College World Series and the NBA Playoffs are providing hotels, restaurants and shops a much-needed boost in business both downtown and throughout Oklahoma City. The influx of visitors is expected to hit a breakneck pace during Game 1 of the NBA Finals with the Thunder playing the Indiana Pacers on national television (ABC) while Texas and Texas Tech battle it out for the women’s softball championship on ESPN.

oklahoman.com

Entering the NBA Finals, NBA playoff games have averaged 4.20 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, ESPNU, TNT and NBA TV — up 3% from last year (4.10M). With NBA TV and ESPNU excluded, the average of 4.5 million is still up 3% year-over-year. Playoff games have averaged a 10.6 share — meaning that 10.6% of TV homes using television are watching in the average minute — the highest for the playoffs on record. (As linear television usage declines, live sports will tend to make up a greater and greater share of the audience.)

Sports Media Watch

There is one thing that both the NBA and Disney, which owns ABC, can agree on: a longer series benefits everyone. That’s where the teams, league and networks make money. Every incremental game will make each team, plus the league and players, through their revenue-sharing plan, more money. ABC stands to make even more. Networks sell the ads that air during the playoffs months ahead of time. They estimate the cost of those ads, based on projected ratings. If the ratings for the finals are lower than expected, they will offer make-good commercial time to advertisers. But networks usually only sell ads ahead of time for the first four to five games of a seven-game series, the television executive said. “If you get a Game 7 all the money goes right to the bottom line,” the executive said.

New York Times

Inside the NBA will lead ESPN’s pregame and halftime programming. The show will air live during ABC/ESPN’s biggest events, including the NBA Finals, conference finals, and NBA playoffs. They’ll also be featured on opening week, Christmas Day, all ABC games after Jan. 1, and the final week of the season. ESPN’s own NBA Countdown will survive, but it will be strictly second-string.

Front Office Sports

The final episode of Inside the NBA barely finished airing on TNT Sports before doomsayers like Bill Simmons were predicting ESPN will ruin the show. But I’m hearing from sources that ESPN has zero plans to change the iconic show’s DNA. No, you’re not going to see Charles Barkley riding a Booger-mobile on the sidelines. Or Shaquille O’Neal & Co. wearing canary-yellow vests emblazoned with the ABC logo. TNT will retain full editorial control. So expect to see the same funny, bombastic, basketball show that’s earned 21 Sports Emmy Awards during its historic run.

Front Office Sports

NBA playoff viewership is trailing only the elevated levels of two years ago as the highest in more than a decade. NBA playoff games are averaging 3.85 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, ESPNU, TNT and NBA TV entering the conference finals, up 2% from last year and the second-highest average since 2014. With ESPNU and NBA TV excluded, that average rises to 4.17 million — up 3% and still the second-highest since 2014. The 2023 playoffs, which included several viewership milestones in the first two rounds, holds the top spot.

Sports Media Watch

Shams Charania: Aaron Gordon will play and start in Game 7 for the Nuggets against the Thunder, source tells ESPN, gutting out a Grade 2 hamstring strain that requires weeks to heal. All on the line in Game 7 (3:30 pm ET, ABC).

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NBA playoff viewership continues to trend above last year, with the Celtics-Knicks series producing a pair of big gains for Games 3 and 4. Through Monday, NBA playoff games are averaging 3.7 million viewers across ESPN, ABC, TNT and NBA TV, with that figure rising to 4.05 million with NBA TV excluded — up 5 and 6 percent respectively from last year. Second round games are averaging 4.83 million, up 5% from last year’s 4.58 million. Monday’s Celtics-Knicks second round Game 4 averaged 6.13 million viewers on ESPN, up 50% from Celtics-Cavaliers the same night last year, which aired on TNT (4.09M). The Knicks’ win, which peaked with 8.54 million, delivered the second-largest audience of the playoffs on cable. (Warriors-Rockets Game 7 averaged 6.63 million on TNT in the first round.)

Sports Media Watch

The “I think I broke it” moment captured by ABC cameras came late in the half after Towns fought Luke Kornet for a rebound. The New Jersey product also was shown wincing in the third quarter after a foul called against Holiday.

New York Post