The 2023 NBA All-Star Game hit a new ratings low, with less than 4.6 million viewing the broadcast. That number was a 29% decrease from 2022. 98.7 ESPN New York host Don La Greca believes the bad ratings could have an impact on the next NBA TV deal.
“If they’re gonna get these kinds of ratings, it’s gonna affect the next television deal,” La Greca said during The Michael Kay Show Wednesday. “Which is coming up. Why would you wanna have that? That used to be something on national television. I remember when it went to TNT. People were like ‘Oh my god, it’s on cable. What’s going on there?’, but that’s happened with a lot of sports.
“You want that product to have a certain cachet. You don’t want to go into the new television contract with your All-Star Game being off 30% from the previous year. So I would scrap it, just go back to East/West and have a monetary gain for the winner.”
The new record low for the All-Star Game was achieved by a wide margin. The previous low for the event was 6.1 million viewers in 2021. During the first season the game aired on TNT in 2003, the event drew 10.8 million viewers.
The NBA All-Star Game reached as high as 23 million viewers in the 1990s while the game was broadcast on NBC, which is reportedly planning an “aggressive bid” for the next television deal. The NBA’s current deal runs through the conclusion of the 2024-2025 season.
