NBA viewership has been in significant decline over the past few years. In the past few years, the number of fans who loyally follow the season has declined for a multitude of reasons.
In 2009, the number of people watching the NBA was at an all-time high, but it has now reached some of its lowest numbers. Some people blame the drop in viewership on COVID-19 and others say it is due to new streaming services causing people to not buy the channels the games are provided on because of the price of the streaming services.
“I believe viewership has declined for the NBA because a good bit of the games are on NBA TV or exclusive streaming platforms, where people have to pay extra to watch the games compared to when people could just be able to hop on regular tv to watch the games,” said Elijah Gaddy, a junior management information systems major. “I still watch the league but it sometimes turns into an impossible feeling task to find the games that I want to watch. It is disappointing that views are going down but hopefully, with all of the sports betting happening, it will boost its views back up to what they used to be.”
Common streaming services where people go to watch sporting events include Hulu, YouTube TV and ESPN+. Typically, if someone is watching it on a platform like this, they would have to pay an additional cost to their subscription to watch live sports.
“The views have gone down due to how political it has gotten and how many foul calls have been made,” said Luke Strickland, a sophomore finance major. “I also think it has gone down due to the coronavirus because the league had to stop playing. The newer streaming services seem to be a factor in the views as well.”
The upcoming 2024 presidential election seems to have a big impact on all platforms and channels. Reasonably, many viewers want to watch the games without any political commercials or influences. Many people, like Strickland, believe the two should remain separate.
“There are so many games packed into one season, I feel like people cannot keep up with them and just stop watching the league,” said Laney Foust, a junior exercise science major. “I also believe people have become more interested in football and started to care less about the NBA. I think there could be a whole lot more factors that play into it but those seem to be the most prominent factors in my eyes. I would hope that the league would find some way of getting more people into it or finding a way to get all the games on the same streaming platform.”
The league is now having to brainstorm ideas on how to get back viewers or at least maintain the views that they have now.
