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I can appreciate @SherwoodStrauss attempt to nail why ratings are down, but I think it has less to do with social justice issues and hipocrisy around China than about the core demographic and their behaviors around media changing.
The same core age group that loved the NBA and NBA players over the last 40 years loves it even more now. But their behaviors around media and how they consume media have completely changed. As someone that spends my days trying to understand this core demo, this is on the money.
The love of the culture around NBA for the core youth demo has, if anything, grown, not decreased. This core consumes tons of NBA related content and supports products co-signed or affiliated with players. They just don’t consume content in the fashion the NBA biz model built on.
I make my living around selling players to companies and that business has grown, not slowed down. Even during covid-19. We’ve been busier than ever. This core demo just prefers Instagram highlights, gossip, debates, NBA 2K, stats, fantasy, etc over watching full games.
Bleacher Report was built on the back of NBA and basketball culture. Youth demo LOVES basketball and the culture. It’s by far the #1 sport played in the country and the one sport where people are following the next stars as child stars. Those kids are rock stars to that demo.
The next star in high school is probably more aspirational to that demo, because it’s now possible to have your high school highlights or your fit or kicks highlighted on a big platform as a teenager. It’s more likely that you can be Mac McClung than LeBron. That’s aspirational!
With democratized media (everyone having high quality internet connected video cameras in their pockets, etc) and the aspirational nature of following the next stars, covering and tracking these kids, gets similar love to tracking NBA players and what’s going on in the league.
So the NBA is also competing with grassroots basketball for attention. Investing in grassroots basketball and media platforms around grassroots basketball would be a good look for the league, because the core demo loves following grass roots hoops.
The thing is, I would have loved consuming grassroots hoops when I was hoops obsessed teen, but the stage we were at with media in the 90s made that impossible. I got my first look at Penny Hardaway when he got to Memphis, Jason Kidd when he got to Cal, etc. Those days are gone.
Like many other legacy media properties, the NBA is at a crossroads where their business model is built on the old way media worked and they are still trying monetize and develop biz around how their core demo now consumes media.
It hasn’t really mattered to this stage because the cable bundle is so desperate to hold on, that even with declining traditional TV ratings, the NBA’s TV package is VERY valuable. But long term there has to be a focus on monetizing the new behaviors of their core demo better.
