Despite finishing as the most-watched programs on television since the first week of May, the first two games of the NBA Finals broadcast on ABC averaged less than 9 million viewers. Diminished ratings have been a prevailing storyline surrounding the NBA throughout the year, taking precedence prior to a historic performance across a five-game slate on Christmas Day. Even so, the NBA Finals ratings are down 24% year-over-year and contains two teams located in mid-size media markets. With the series tied at one game per side heading into a decisive Game 3 on Wednesday night, Damon Amendolara and Mike Babchik reviewed the importance of these numbers, which equate to an average of 8.84 million viewers per contest thus far.
The morning SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio show played audio from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who explained that he liked people talking about the league. At the same time though, he expressed frustration that fans have approached him on the street and asked about the ratings rather than remarking on the strong NBA Conference Finals matchups. Nonetheless, he enjoys what is happening in the league at the moment and believes it presents a strong product for basketball fans to view. When the sound finished, Amendolara asked Babchik if this was a story, to which he acceded that it was and acknowledged NBA PR spinning the narrative to compare the programs to all of television.
“This low rating thing was something that we thought would happen, and every time we talked about if there was a Pacers-Thunder series, ‘Good luck,’” Babchik said. “Good luck to all the people that wanted some of these other teams out along the way because this was going to be one of these Finals that, yeah, the NBA hardcore fan is locked in. They shouldn’t care about TV ratings, they watch the product — that’s all that really matters to them — but this would be the NBA fan’s Finals, and that’s not a good thing for the league.”
Amendolara concurred that it was a story in some ways, but he also acknowledged that the same logic does not apply in other senses. The reason he finds it relevant is that television ratings are utilized as an indicator to discern what people care about, and as a radio host, he tries to reach a broad audience with his content.
“If I came on the air today and I started talking about the FIFA Club soccer World Cup coming to New York, it’d be like, ‘Boy, DA, you are so off on what your audience wants to hear,’” Amendolara hypothesized. “There would be a sub-segment of the audience that’s like, ‘Oh my God, cool. DA’s talking about soccer to lead off the show today, and I don’t get to hear that anywhere except SiriusXM FC or whatever.’
But if I did that, it would be off the mark of what the audience was really caring about by and large, so you’re trying to constantly talk to a broadcast, the broadest cast for what we do, and that’s kind of how I’ve always approached the show wherever I was.”
On the Monday edition of the morning show, there was a debate about whether Game 2 of the NBA Finals or the men’s singles finals of Roland-Garros would draw more viewers. While the NBA game ultimately outdrew the tennis proceedings, it was something Amendolara knew would transpire based on levels of interest.
“Tennis vs. basketball no matter what is going to kind of do that, especially without an American in that men’s final,” Amendolara said. “So are the ratings significant? Yeah, in some ways, because it gives us an indication about interest in the sport, but does it really matter? As you just said, the television contracts going forward have been signed. That’s it – they are ironclad. Amazon and Peacock and NBC and ESPN have paid the money – that money is paid, that money is guaranteed.”
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