With the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers set to begin the NBA Finals on Thursday night, there has been rampant speculation about what the television viewership will end up being, especially with two of the smaller market NBA teams playing for a championship. Consequently, the discussion point has been raised by many in sports media as the NBA is set to embark on its new 11-year, $76 billion media rights deals with Disney (ABC/ESPN), NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock), and Amazon next season.
In a related conversation, Ryen Russillo was a guest on Pardon My Take with Dan “Big Cat” Katz and Eric “PFT Commenter” Sollenberger on Wednesday and was asked about why some in sports media make television ratings such a prominent talking point.
“A lot of the ratings decline stuff is driven by people’s political beliefs. If you’re really right wing, you love the idea of the NBA being a dying product because it’s probably the most progressive of the leagues,” said Russillo. “What I don’t like is disingenuous arguments. I would tell you people that are like in the TV game, the people making these decisions that I’ve talked to, investing into live rights are like, ‘who the f**k is using traditional ratings anymore?’”
Furthermore, the host of The Ryen Russillo Podcast noted that the ratings for the upcoming NBA Finals will not be as high as most. However, he emphasized that the same is true for nearly every other league not named the NFL. He explained that a low rating doesn’t necessarily mean the NBA is in decline.
“It’s not the NFL. It’s not perfect. You want to compare it to the 90s,” questioned Russillo. “Alright, let’s do it with the NBA. It looks terrible. You want to do it with any other f***ing TV show from the 90s? I’m telling you right now, it’s probably going to look bad when you start comparing sitcoms to Friends.”
The NBA Finals begin on Thursday night, with all games airing on ABC television.
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