As most of you are probably fairly hard core NBA fans, any ideas on why the television ratings for the playoffs have been so abysmal? I admit to not following things too closely this year (Rockets fan in Illinois who hates the Bulls - why should I care this year?) but it is somewhat surprising. Has the style gotten worse? Poor first round match-ups?

I know the playoffs have been losing the ratings war to the NFL draft, Sponge Bob re-runs and wrestling but the kicker came yesterday when not a single television at Buffalo Wild Wings was showing game 7 (I guess college baseball was too riveting). If you are losing the sports bars...

Putting a game in every series on a channel no one gets, blowouts in the eastern half, SAS/DAL and UTA/DEN are fairly regional in terms of interest due to their locations being very close together, who cares about Portland/Phoenix.

Second round should be better as the East matchups get more interesting and the teams everyone knew weren't going anywhere have been knocked out of the west.

Honestly the Bucks/Hawks matchup was as boring as it gets for the unrelated markets.

I assume it's a by-product of having over 50% of the entire NBA field making the postseason, and the postseason lasting longer then the olympics.

Viewership should go up as the field narrows, but it's still pretty sad.

The NBA playoffs happened to fall during the NFL off season. That really did a number on the ratings.

Too many games. Who wants to watch a 7-game series between the Hawks and Bucks? Or between Cleveland and Chicago?

As with everything else, the NBA expanded its playoffs to make more money by going from 5- to 7-game 1st round series. And they ended up diluting the product considerably.

I feel like SA is half way to a title, and they've only played a single round. The first round used to be a formality for good teams. Not its a marathon, sometimes with 3 days between games.

[This message has been edited by MassAggie97 (edited 5/3/2010 3:21p).]

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Too many games. Who wants to watch a 7-game series between the Hawks and Bucks? Or between Cleveland and Chicago?

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People who gamble.

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As with everything else, the NBA expanded its playoffs to make more money by going from 5- to 7-game 1st round series. And they ended up diluting the product considerably.

I feel like SA is half way to a title, and they've only played a single round. The first round used to be a formality for good teams. Not its a marathon, sometimes with 3 days between games.

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Good points.

I also think the new, longer format also discourages cinderella upsets like the 93-94 #8 Nuggets upset of #1 Seattle in the first round. And no, I don't consider the Spurs beating the Mavs this year as big of an upset as that one.



[This message has been edited by Silver Eagle (edited 5/3/2010 3:31p).]

NBA expanded the playoffs because the 04 Lakers were playing bad heading into the playoffs and they wanted to make sure there wasn't a first round out for KobeShaqPaytonMalone.

You forgot the Golden State upset of Dallas in 2006.

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You forgot the Golden State upset of Dallas in 2006.

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Yes, that was a good one too. Funny thing is that series would have been over in 4 had it been a Best of 5. Maybe it's just me, but I still consider the Denver upset more epic in that most of the games were close, and the deciding Game 5 ended in OT. Can anyone even name another Nuggets player on that team other than Mutombo? In the Mavs-Warriors series, based on the final game scores, you would've thought the Warriors were the #1 and not the Mavs.

wasn't Bison Dele on that team-

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wasn't Bison Dele on that team-

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+1

How are the first round ratings compared to the last few years?

I think he was still Brian Williams at that point.

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I think he was still Brian Williams at that point.

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Maybe, but Chris Jackson was on that Nuggets team, post-name change

Too many team in playoffs. Too many games in first round. Already mentioned for good reason.

Too many days off. It's hard to get real excited about a series when you have 2 or 3 days off inbetween games. The 'too difficult to travel' bit is nonsense. Give everybody a game every other day. That way the series can build the momentum, hatred, excitement that make you want to watch it.

Officiating. I'm hoping to not derail this thread, but terrible reffing is big reason. Lots of my friends just can't stand watching NBA hoops because of the biased refs. (Most are Seattle guys, so it's not Mav fans)

NBA is all about individuals, not teams. It's Lebron, Kobe, Duncan, and Dirk. But lots of fans are like me. Those guys are awesome, but it's nice to see some team basketball too.

Not sure Duncan belongs in a list of players who exemplify the lack of team play in the NBA... the Spurs have never been about a superstar.

This isn't new to this year. Wrestling has been beating the NBA playoffs for years.

First off, the NBA is not really about TV ratings. Those who use ratings as a measure of popularity, see Colin Cowherd, aren't paying attention to the whole model Stern has built. He's really built out the online and foreign markets. If a big play happens, it gets replayed a bazillion times on YouTube and nobody cares how many were tuned in when it happened. It's really a highlight driven league anyway. I myself am a huge NBA fan and I can't take the time to watch all these games.

Second, the NBA is a regional sport from a TV standpoint. All the locals are watching FSN or whatever local broadcast there is. That significantly hurts the ratings for TNT and ESPN. It's big in NBA cities, it's not big in non-NBA cities. simple as that. The local teams get big money from the local affiliates so nobody is losing money over poor TNT ratings.

Third, all these games are on cable or worse... the NBATV. That eliminates a very large demographic of potential viewers. ABC finally had some games on Sunday but it's so rare that I doubt anyone knows to go there for NBA.

NBA TV
NFL Network

NBA TV is on time Warner. That right there is a big edge on the NFL network.

Mahmoud

I dn't watch any regular season, because it doesn't mean anything. I only watched the Mavs-Spurs because I had to feed the infant at night and because it's a good rivalry. I normally start paying attention in the 2nd round, when it's down to the actual contenders (I thought Dallas might be one, but not with Methuselah at point guard). It's not like the NFL, where a wild card could actually win the Super Bowl. Unless there are significant injuries that cause the regular season record to be bad (such as '95 Rockets), the lower seeds have no chance at winning the title. Even if they do advance, you'll get 7 more chances to see them in the next round.