NBA commissioner Adam Silver believes that the slow migration of television viewership away from linear and toward streaming has “disproportionately impacted the NBA,” he told Yahoo! Sports this week.
“We recognize that, in some ways, the decline of cable has disproportionately impacted the NBA,” Silver told Kendall Baker of Yahoo Sports AM. “Our young audience isn’t subscribing to cable, and those fans aren’t finding our games.
But there are still roughly 65 million homes in America that are consuming sports in a very traditional way, and even more people on network TV. Is that declining? Yes. Is that going away anytime soon? I don’t believe so. So we want to be on all of those platforms.”
The NBA is currently in an exclusive negotiating window with current broadcast rights-holders ESPN and TNT before those deals expire in 2025. Both networks are expected to cut back on their packages. That has led analysts to predict at least one streamer gets involved. NBC and Amazon are known suitors to bid for NBA rights.
At the same time, NBA viewership is down from its recent peak during the Golden State Warriors dynasty. The league will levy fines this season if teams rest star players for nationally televised games.
Meanwhile, local broadcast deals are crumbling due to Diamond Sports’ bankruptcy and the devolution of the cable bundle.
Some including NBA super agent Rich Paul believe direct-to-consumer is the future. But that business is not nearly strong enough in 2023 to support a league worth billions.
Overall, Silver’s comments do not come as a surprise. But the NBA will have to figure out its viewership concerns at some point.