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Can The NBA Recapture Their Lost Ratings?

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Can The NBA Recapture Their Lost Ratings?

It didn’t feel like too long ago that the NBA was considered the top US sports team, but it’s witnessed a worrying, spectacular decline over the last decade, falling miles behind the NFL. Although basketball has never dominated as a sport in the US like the NFL has, the disparity between the popularity of the two sports has never been wider.

These sustained, diminishing viewing figures are alarming for NBA chiefs, as it can be the first sign of a rot. As soon as people start switching off en masse, the amount of money for broadcasting will be impacted, which will trickle down further and impact player wages and franchises, who will have to increase ticket prices to accommodate the loss of centralized funding.

Instead of deliberating on the problems at hand, the NBA’s chiefs and executives and some of the leading franchises have been exploring ways to turn around the league’s wider misfortunes—but what are some of the methods they could implement to truly turn the tide and close ground on the NFL?

The Emergence Of A Household Name

You only need to look at some of the NBA’s legends over the last 30 years—Michael Jordan, Shaq, and Kobe—to realize just how important it is for American sports to have a dominant name that acts as the face of the organization. Nearly thirty years on from the magical Chicago Bulls team, Netflix’s The Last Dance has shown just how magical that 1990s period was in the NBA.

To say Michael Jordan was a household name back then would be the understatement of the century. Alongside potentially Mike Tyson, he was the most recognizable name in American sports. Jordan starred in Space Jam and was followed everywhere by the paparazzi, including in and out of his favorite restaurants and casinos.

While it’s no secret that MJ was a fan of a few blackjack games and would constantly bet against his teammates over small battles and disagreements, his approach to these games instilled such a winner’s mentality. It made him much more human and relatable to the working American.

Jordan would reportedly travel miles away from the team hotel to play blackjack. While playing real blackjack online would be a lot more convenient for him today, his unique character, his commitment to not being PR-managed, and his thirst for playing blackjack, gambling, and winning were part of the more extensive Jordan package.

If he hadn’t constantly performed out on the court, maybe the NBA might have paid closer attention to his blackjack exploits, but it was part of the complex ingredients that made him such a formidable opponent for many.

Streaming Services – Adapting To A Modern Day Audience

Having such an enigmatic, highly-skilled American with crossover appeal at the top of any US sport inevitably brings in big numbers – and while the NBA has been lacking this for a while, with many of the top names coming in from overseas, the organization hasn’t helped itself either with a fairly messy approach to which streaming services their games should be broadcast on.

The NBA is finalizing a deal with Disney+, reportedly worth billions. If Disney+ can become the NBA’s home for at least a few years, this consistency might help the domestic market grow. We’re not going to pretend navigating the current oversaturated mess of streaming services is easy for the NBA, but it feels like it could be better managed in the same way soccer in Europe is or combat sports like the UFC.

A lot of sustained, growing interest in the NBA has come from overseas, where international fans can buy a season pass and watch any game live. It is a much better model. While we appreciate that implementing this approach can be challenging, especially in the US, the current scattergun approach of several different TV channels and streaming services is certainly not helping the NBA reach a consistent target audience.

Final Thoughts

We don’t want to sound too dismissive or reductive. Still, if the NBA can develop a platform that consistently delivers the big games and US fans know where to go to watch their team, this will help considerably—it could plug many of the gaps and stem the flow of US fans moving away from the NBA in droves.

Affordability is also a key factor, but from an external perspective, a huge crossover name like Michael Jordan or Kobe would potentially bring back many of these viewing figures. Jordan’s impact is still felt across the sporting world, perfectly illustrated by The Last Dance’s popularity just a few years ago.

If the NBA can develop some huge American talent and offer a cheap, consistent, reliable way to watch the big games, then hopefully, they’ll be able to claw back some of the lost ratings. People have switched away from the NBA in their droves—viewership has more or less halved since the 2010 season, and to ensure this rot doesn’t continue, there’ll need to be a clear plan of action moving forward.

Ray Stevens to Replace Steve Cochran in Mornings on WLS-AM 890

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Ray Stevens to Replace Steve Cochran in Mornings on WLS-AM 890

WLS-AM 890 has announced Ray Stevens will replace Steve Cochran in morning drive on the Cumulus-owned Chicago news/talk station.

In posts to social media, the station announced that Stevens will host from 5:30-9 AM. That timeslot was previously occupied by Cochran, who joined the station in 2022 after previously working at rival WGN Radio. Any mention of Cochran has been wiped from the station’s website, however, it appears as if he hosted his morning show like normal on Friday.

The station revealed that Stevens will begin on Monday, June 10th.

Stevens comes to the station after most recently working as the midday host at KCMO Talk Radio in Kansas City. Stevens — who hosted from 10 AM-Noon in Kansas City — joined the Cumulus news/talk station in September of last year in place of the departing Chris Stigall.

Affectionately known as “Ramblin’ Ray”, Stevens had filled in at WLS in an interim capacity after the departure of morning host Bruce St. James. A long-time country radio staple, Stevens was named the Major Market Personality of the Year Award winner in 2010 by the Country Music Association.

The Closing Bell and PM Chicago were also canceled by WLS-AM 890. The station will move up The Micahel Knowles Show in its lineup and add The Matt Walsh Show from The Daily Wire in place of the local afternoon programming.

Report: Warner Bros. Discovery Acquires French Open Broadcasting Rights in U.S.

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Warner Bros. Discovery has reportedly acquired the media rights to the French Open, also known as Roland-Garros, according to a report from Brian Steinberg of Variety. The company will start broadcasting the international tennis tournament in 2025 to commence a 10-year contract worth a total of $650 million, as reported by Andrew Marchand of The Athletic. This moves the telecast away from NBC Sports, which has had the French Open on its air every year since 1983. As part of the deal, Warner Bros. Discovery will reportedly have the right to broadcast the event in the United States and continue doing so in Europe, which it has been doing within the Eurosport television networks since 1989.

The French Open marks the latest edition within the company’s sports portfolio, which currently includes Major League Baseball, the National Basketball Association, the National Hockey League and the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament among other offerings. The company reached a deal with ESPN last month to license select College Football Playoff games, which begins with two first-round contests this year, as part of the expanded 12-team playoff. ESPN reached a six-year, $7.8 billion deal with the College Football Playoff in March to continue carrying tournament games through the 2031-32 season.

Upon the start of its deal to broadcast the French Open, Warner Bros. Discovery intends to make tournament coverage available on its linear television networks, the Max streaming service and Bleacher Report digital platform. This also adds an offering to the Venu joint streaming venture with The Walt Disney Company and FOX Corporation, although it is facing an antitrust lawsuit from FuboTV concurrent with a separate, unrelated class-action lawsuit pertaining to NFL Sunday Ticket.

Warner Bros. Discovery is reportedly in negotiations with the National Basketball Association to try and retain broadcast rights to the league. While the reported media partners going forward are The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal and Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery reportedly has the ability to match rights, although the breadth of that option is somewhat ambiguous.

The company could acquire a fourth broadcast package should it be made available to them as well, according to a recent report from Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports. Because of the uncertainty surrounding the resolution, however, the future of the NBA on TNT and Inside the NBA is in a state of flux. The league’s existing media rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery for a reported $1.2 million annually expires at the end of next season.

Mike Tyson-Jake Paul Fight Now Planned for November on Netflix

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Mike Tyson-Jake Paul Fight Now Planned for November on Netflix

The anticipation of the first live boxing event to air on Netflix will have to hold on until November. It was recently announced Mike Tyson would be unable to fight YouTube sensation turned pro boxer Jake Paul on the originally scheduled date of July 20 due to an ulcer flare-up on a recent flight which caused his doctors to limit his training for the next few weeks.

The new date is Friday November 15, and it will still take place at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. The Cowboys have a Monday Night Football game on Monday November 18, which forced the move to a Friday so the stadium could be turned over for football.

“Our team has worked diligently with all parties involved to reschedule this monumental fight to a date that ensures both Jake Paul and Mike Tyson are fully prepared, with equal training time, as well as allowing us to keep the event at AT&T stadium in the midst of the Cowboys season,” Nakisa Bidarian, co-founder of Most Valuable Promotions, said in a statement. “We appreciate the outstanding dedication, collaboration, and flexibility of our partners at Netflix and AT&T Stadium. Paul vs. Tyson is the most cross-generational sporting event in history, and we are committed to providing fans worldwide with this unforgettable night of boxing, live globally on Netflix. We look forward to seeing everyone on Friday, November 15 for a showdown that will be talked about for generations to come.”

“Although we had to postpone the fight, I will resume training shortly. I am thankful to the medical staff that treated me and to MVP, Netflix, and AT&T Stadium for working diligently to find the best reschedule date for all parties,” Tyson said in a statement. “While we have a new date, the result will be the same no matter when we fight. Jake Paul is getting knocked out.”

Mike Tyson will turn 58 years old on June 30 and will be fighting as a professional for the first time in almost 20 years. Jake Paul is 27 years old.

Andrew Marchand: Tom Brady NFL Broadcasting Debut ‘Going to Be an Event’

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During the company’s Upfront event last month, FOX Sports introduced its new lead NFL broadcasting booth featuring analyst Tom Brady, who signed a 10-year contract with the company to begin upon his retirement several years ago. Brady, a seven-time Super Bowl champion quarterback with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, will join play-by-play announcer Kevin Burkhardt and reporters Erin Andrews and Tom Rinaldi.

Leading up to Brady’s broadcast debut, sports media reporter Andrew Marchand spoke about the topic numerous times on the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast back when he was working for the New York Post. In fact, Marchand introduced a ‘Brady meter’ to determine the likelihood of him taking the air for the network altogether.

About a year later, Brady is preparing to broadcast games and developing chemistry with his colleagues through conversations and test broadcasts. Numerous FOX Sports personalities have shared that he has been at the company’s headquarters to practice the craft ahead of his broadcast debut in Week 1 of the NFL season when the Dallas Cowboys face the Cleveland Browns. Marchand currently has the ‘Brady meter’ at a 99, indicating that Brady will more than likely end up taking the air for the NFL on FOX.

“It’s going to be an event that first game [in] the late window,” Marchand said while appearing on SI Media with Jimmy Traina. “It’s going to be Tom Brady – everyone is going to have an opinion about him, and that’s a lot.”

Marchand pointed out that many players do not necessarily know the sound of the broadcast when they first start in the booth because of their penchant to compete on the field. In fact, he stated that most of them do not want to commentate the Super Bowl but end up doing so especially for a lot of money. That being said, he understands that the pendulum swings both ways and that there are shortcomings he has compared to Brady.

“I’ve watched a million games,” Marchand said. “You and I would not be able to see the field like Tom Brady obviously – not even in his hemisphere – so he’s got to learn those mechanics, [such as] how you get in, how you get out, ‘What am I supposed to be saying? What should I be looking for? How many points?’”

Part of Brady’s responsibility will be explaining the nuances of the game in a simple way for the audience to understand. Traina, however, does not necessarily want him to dumb it down on the air. Marchand stated that it is part of the job, referencing his experience covering baseball in that the level at which these topics can be discussed is beyond normal and contains different vernacular.

“The job is to go from what’s in that brain to his mouth [and] make the complicated simple so you and I can understand it,” Marchand said. “To me, it’s not that hard to do in a lot of respects – I can give some examples – but that’s what he needs to do.”

‘Ask the PD’ Show Gives Valuable Feedback to Chuck Sapienza About 105.7 The Fan

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‘Ask the PD’ Show Gives Valuable Feedback to Chuck Sapienza About 105.7 The Fan

Back in 2012, when Chuck Sapienza was VP of Programming for ESPN 980 in Washington, D.C., a major weather event forced him to have to let his on-air team leave the building. With nobody there to do a show and only one producer willing to stay, Sapienza did the show himself. In his own words, Sapienza is not an on-air host, rather an Executive Producer and programmer, however, what he talked about that day changed his relationship with his listeners. The topic that caught on was one he was very familiar with – the programming of the radio station, so he did an ‘Ask the PD’ show and it hit.

Since then, a couple of times per year, whether it was in D.C. or now in his current role as Brand Manager for 105.7 The Fan in Baltimore, he will interact with the audience and get their feedback on the station. He did another episode of ‘Ask the PD’ this week as he hosted the station’s midday show, Vinny & Haynie.

When he did the first show back in D.C. he said, “I got a lot of cool feedback and a lot of cool response. It let the listeners behind the curtain, so I ended up doing it twice a year.”

Sapienza said he would typically do the show when someone had a vacation or otherwise needed a fill-in. He did schedule a show in the evening when he arrived in Baltimore to introduce himself to the market.

In total, between on-air shows and ones on Facebook, Sapienza has done this 16-18 times between the two markets. Moving forward he anticipates always doing it on-air. “I feel like you’re touching the listener a little bit more and making them feel more a part of the radio station. It’s just a cool way to get them asking questions.”

Of course, listeners can sometimes get carried away with their critiques or flat-out hatred of certain hosts, but Sapienza says he has developed a style for when it becomes a “bitch session.”

“I don’t get into it with the listeners, I don’t argue with them,” he said. “If they don’t like something its ok. I get it. Not every show is going to be liked by everybody. I explain to them if every show was the same, we would have a very loyal listenership to a very small percentage of people. I want our shows to be different, which means they’re not going to all be for you.”

Sapienza has even created an email address “just for the listeners” and he will reply to social media posts where listeners ask questions, so it is clearly important to him to hear from the people his hosts try and inform and entertain on a daily basis.

At a recent station event celebrating their 15th anniversary, Sapienza was surprised how many listeners asked him when he would be doing the next ‘Ask the PD.’ “As a Program Director your job is to make the station better, me on the air doesn’t make the station better…but I know we are going to get complaints and have people who have an agenda or want to get on a soap box. But the complaints are only part of it.”

Sapienza says he also likes having some time to explain things like when a team might move their play-by-play rights to another company or about other decisions that have to be made. “I try to explain the difference between the business side of radio and the programming side, that it’s a big difference,” he said.

The show Sapienza hosted this week was not only in a prime daytime slot, but it was also a four-hour shift. He said the phones rang throughout the entire show, 40 or more emails came in as well as several posts with questions on social media.

“The response always blows me away,” he said. “There is a passion for the radio station that is overwhelming, we are blessed because of that. I said it on the air, we’re going to continue to strive to get better and the only way to do that is to talk to the listeners and find out what they want. Invariably it’s their radio station, it doesn’t matter what I want…I’d like to know what they want and if I can do it, I can do it.”

New Jersey 101.5 Elevates Kylie Moore to Afternoons Alongside Jeff Deminski

BNM Staff
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New Jersey 101.5 Elevates Kylie Moore to Afternoons Alongside Jeff Deminski

After the departure of longtime co-host Bill Doyle late last month, Jeff Deminski will now be paired with Kylie Moore for afternoons at New Jersey 101.5.

Beginning Monday, June 10th, Deminski & Moore will be heard weekdays from 2-7 PM.

Moore joins the show after previously working at the Townsquare Media-owned station as a producer and fill-in host. A Freehold, New Jersey native, The College of New Jersey graduate is relishing the opportunity to join the afternoon program.

“I’m excited to partner with Jeff Deminski,” Moore said. “He’s one of the hardest-working and most genuine people I know, and you can hear his passion through the airwaves. He can make me laugh, think critically, and argue with him all before we hit our first traffic break!”

“The stupid robots in grocery aisles, your phone that fell in a toilet, the governor’s hairstylist somehow avoiding charges, the fact that Kylie still doesn’t understand how to eat M&Ms, the neurosis we all have and never dare talk about,” added Deminski. “Kylie is fun, smart, and unique. I love the wide range of topics we’ll be able to cover.”

Deminski has been with New Jersey 101.5 since 1993.

Edison Research Celebrates 30th Anniversary

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Edison Research Celebrates 30th Anniversary

Edison Research has been one of the foremost media research firms for decades. On Friday, the company celebrated its 30th anniversary.

The company founded by Larry Rosin and Joe Lenski took to social media to share their excitement in reaching the milestone.

“For 30 years, our team has been dedicated to providing accurate and valuable research services to businesses and media outlets worldwide,” the company wrote. “We are grateful for your support in reaching this significant milestone!”

Rob Schilling Expanding Show on WINA in Charlottesville

BNM Staff
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Rob Schilling Expanding Show on WINA in Charlottesville

Rob Schilling is seeing his show at WINA in Charlottesville expand by an hour as part of a slight lineup shuffle at the Saga Communications station.

The Schilling Show will be heard from Noon-2 PM beginning on Monday, June 10th. The expanded hour will replace the first hour of the nationally syndicated Markley, Van Camp, and Robbins.

“I’m grateful for the opportunity to spend more time daily with my loyal listening audience as we further explore and examine pressing issues of the day,” Schilling said. “This additional hour will allow for more compelling guests, more in-depth analysis, and most importantly, more time for WINA listeners to engage with their community.”

The program will also be available on demand on the Cville Right Now website and in podcast form.

“Rob’s ability to connect with the audience and provide insightful commentary has made the show a cornerstone of our programming,” said WINA Program Director Paul McDaniel. “This expansion is a testament to his unparalleled work and the loyalty of his listeners.”

Edmonton Oilers, Rogers Sportsnet Agree to 11-Year Extension of Broadcast Partnership

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Edmonton Oilers, Rogers Sportsnet Agree to 11-Year Extension of Broadcast Partnership

No National Hockey League team in Canada has won the Stanley Cup since the 1992-93 Montréal Canadiens, but that fortune could change in the coming weeks. With Connor McDavid, Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman leading the way, the Edmonton Oilers prepare to compete in the Stanley Cup Final. Ahead of the proceedings though, the team has reached a new agreement with Rogers Sports & Media that will keep games on Sportsnet through the 2035 season.

The new 11-year media rights deal retains Sportsnet as the television home of Oilers hockey, which has had the games on its network for over 25 years. Moreover, Sportsnet serves as the national broadcast rights partner of the NHL in Canada, allowing fans to watch Oilers games on television and streamed live on Sportsnet+. The company also agreed to a deal in April that allows Amazon Prime Video to stream Monday night NHL games in Canada.

“The NHL’s best fans deserve the best regional broadcasts, whether they are watching on television or streaming on their mobile devices,” Stew MacDonald, president and chief revenue officer of OEG Sports & Entertainment, said in a statement. “We couldn’t be happier to continue our partnership with Sportsnet, which includes what we believe is the best regional broadcast play-by-play and analysis in hockey, along with leading-edge technology and constant innovation.”

Fans in Canada will be able to watch the 2024 Stanley Cup Final on Sportsnet, Sportsnet+ and CBC beginning on Saturday, June 8. Sportsnet has broadcast rights to the National Hockey League through the conclusion of the 2025-26 season, after which Rogers Communications is expected to pursue a renewal. Rogers Communications president and chief executive officer Tony Staffieri recently stated that the company expects to be involved in talks, although he did not expound on whether it will pursue another exclusive deal or partner with a streaming service.

“The Edmonton Oilers have been a key part of Sportsnet’s programming for more than 25 years,” Greg Sansone, president of Sportsnet, said in a statement. “We look forward to continue building on this great partnership and delivering coverage to hockey fans across the region, and we thank the Oilers for trusting us with their regional broadcasts for eleven more years.”

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