The NBA appears to be suffering from a massive dip in TV ratings.
According to OutKick, the NBA’s ratings have fallen significantly on several of the stations that carry games.
ABC has seen a 45 percent decrease since the 2011-12 season, while the TNT ratings went down 40 percent, followed by ESPN still dropping a whopping 20 percent.
Newsweek reports that a new poll shows 34 percent of Americans have watched less sports due to “political and social justice messaging.”
Last season was an all time ratings low for the NBA. Until this season. Which is even worse. https://t.co/k0M64XN5vq
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) April 17, 2021
Ratings Drop For The NBA Is Not New
The trend has been ongoing. The past two NBA finals’ ratings have fallen consistently. The 2020 finals ratings went down 51 percent.
This was an all-time low for the championships.
According to The Athletic, the average viewership thus far for NBA games is only 2.83 million.
While historically most professional sports usually outdraw most regular television series, the NBC crime drama The Blacklist averaged about 3.3 million viewers.
One of ABC’s biggest shows, the medical drama The Good Doctor, averaged just over four million viewers per week.
Lakers-Heat 2020 NBA Finals' TV ratings are historically low – Los Angeles Times https://t.co/VRAPLqQw4e
— OctobersVeryOwn (@SwaggyDoo_101) October 9, 2020
Professional Basketball Becoming ‘Too Political’
This severe decrease in ratings has coincided with polls that show many fans feel the NBA has become overly politicized.
In September, a Harris poll revealed that 39 percent of self-identified sports fans thought the NBA had become too political. 19 percent said that they had quit watching pro basketball because of the NBA’s China links.
Others did not like overt Black Lives Matter messages during their sports programming.
In October 2020, NBC Commissioner Adam Silver addressed concerns about the league becoming too engaged in current events and political battles, and said that pro basketball would do less of that in 2021.
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“My sense is there’ll be somewhat a return to normalcy, that those messages will largely be left to be delivered off the floor,” Silver said at the time.
“And, I understand those people who are saying, ‘I’m on your side, but I want to watch a basketball game,’” Silver added.
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