The NBA enjoyed a strong Opening Week with increased viewership, but this then majorly dipped off during Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night national windows.
On Tuesday night, TNT saw a viewership increase of six percent on opening night.
However, ESPN’s opening doubleheader on Wednesday featuring Celtics-Knicks and Lakers-Wolves averaged 1.6 million viewers, which is down 42 percent from 2023 – which was rookie sensation Victor Wembanyama’s debut.
The Bucks and 76ers game had 1.71 million viewers, which is down from 2.55 million for Celtics vs. Knicks in 2023.
The Suns and Clippers game amassed 1.52 million viewers, which is down a whopping 49 percent from last year’s comparable game.
TNT’s Thursday game between the Spurs and Mavericks declined 29 percent over last year’s comparable window, capturing an audience of just 1.45 million viewers against 2.04 million last season.
On Friday, things got even darker. ESPN’s coverage of the Pacers and Knicks had only 830,000 total viewers – which was fewer viewers than a Louisville-Boston College football game on ESPN2 the same night.
But, to be fair, that game was on a the same time as the Yankees-Dodgers World Series Game 1 match.
The dip in viewership may be attributed to the fact that people are frustrated by what they are seeing on the court.
One critic said on social media, “It’s just most people aren’t watching on trackable services because they are trash.”
Another one said, “Stop letting the players run the league. The product is bad.”
This user said, “What did they think was gonna happen when they dilute the game. Having superstars resting Hurts the game.”
This critic went into further detail about the issues the league is facing. “Has nothing to do with the announcing. The product is awful. No defense, no mid range, no post ups, everything is drive and dish and 2/3rds of the teams have no shot at winning and we will see the same 10 teams on TV all year. Plus they pay guys too much to really care.”
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