As 96.5 The Fan morning show host Dusty Likins has watched the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder, he has noticed a lack of discussion surrounding how both teams are competing for their first NBA championships in franchise history. Likins assumed that if the Super Bowl matchup contained such a phenomena, it would be a storyline gaining more discussion. Co-host Bob Fescoe concurred with this point, and it led to producer Mac Morey explaining how Oklahoma City has been kept off national television and that there was minimal discussion surrounding Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton and his propensity to deliver in the clutch.
Fescoe replied by asking whose fault it was for such a paradigm, explicating how they talked about how Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is blaming the media. In fact, he countered the point made by James and conveyed how players never want to speak with media members. As a result, he viewed it as him talking out of both sides of his mouth, asking hypothetically when players make themselves available to form the relationships that used to be more present.
“‘LeBron, when was the last time you sat down with a random media member from LA who has a talk show like we do or writes for the newspaper, and just sat down with that person and told your story and gave that person the time of day?,’” Fescoe asked. “Media will tell your story if you allow them to have access to you. They don’t allow themselves to have access to the media like it was back in the day, so LeBron, kick rocks on this one King.”
Likins mentioned how there has been discussion about a documentary being released after James’ career detailing his journey. Furthermore, he mentioned how James has alluded to the project in previous comments and agreed that it is how the venture should be marketed. Likins proceeded to refer to NBA Commissioner Adam Silver as a “clown,” emphasizing that instead of looking for the next face of the league, it is a better idea to compile a group of faces wherein one might rise above.
“Adam Silver doesn’t listen to what the people want,” Likins said. “Major League Baseball is listening – doesn’t mean they’re listening all the time. The NFL just puts their ear to the wall and are like, ‘Alright, tell us.’”
Fescoe opined that baseball has figured out how to market its superstar players, pointing to athletes such as Paul Skenes, Bobby Witt Jr., Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. Yet he also acknowledged how the sport is marketed differently to him than other people, leading him to parse how NBC Sports could go about promoting the return of the NBA to its airwaves in the fall. Comcast Corporation is preparing to commence an 11-year media rights deal reportedly worth $2.45 billion per annum that will place games both on broadcast and streaming television platforms.
“NBC needs to take advantage of their platform with Sunday Night Football and have commercials for the NBA and show the NBA,” Fescoe said. “Go to where the people are, right? Everybody’s watching Sunday Night Football. You want to market that the NBA is going to be on NBC this year? You need to be running promos.”
NBC Sports recently divulged that Sunday Night Football finished the television season as the No. 1 program in prime time television for the 14th consecutive year. For the full season of broadcasts, the NBC broadcast of the prime time game averaged 19.4 million viewers and secured an average household rating of 9.8. As the property prepares to enter its 20th season on NBC next year that will culminate with its presentation of Super Bowl LX, Fescoe hopes that the company lives up to the moment through its promotional efforts.
“You have an opportunity now with that crossover, and NBC may get some baseball as well, so you may be promoting all of that during Sunday Night Football, and that’s good for everybody. Use that NFL platform and bring everybody else up with those rights that you have. I hope NBC gets baseball so we do get all of that crossover during the NFL time.”
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