NBC, seeking a big NBA bounce, needs to improve its cable games
When basketball legend Reggie Miller thinks about NBC’s long history of broadcasting NBA games starting in the 1990s, “my hands start shaking,” he recently admitted during a news conference. “As a player, I had some of my best moments” on NBC, he admitted, and “my hands still get sweaty” when the memories come back.
Now a lot of people are hoping Miller’s hands will behave when he thinks about the NBA on NBC over the next decade.
Like the former Indiana Pacer, a slew of NBA games are coming to NBC from Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT, where it has been shown for nearly 40 years (and where Miller once helped explain the game’s action before joining NBC). NBC hopes to boost the matches with the larger potential audience that executives hope to find on the broadcast network.
“You have a certain demographic that may not watch NBA games,” says Rick Kordella, president of NBC Sports. “You can introduce them to the players and personalities, and that might translate into streaming ratings.”
For NBCUniversal, the NBA isn’t just something that happens on the court. If executed properly, the new basketball contract could help transform the company, from one best known for “Law & Order” and “Saturday Night Live” into an entity as closely associated with sports as ESPN or Fox. In the age of streaming, live sports is the only programming format still reeling in the large simultaneous audiences that advertisers and distributors crave, generating the kind of social media chatter that unites crowds across disparate screens. NBC was already working with the NFL and major league golf, but a flurry of basketball games and a soon-to-be-announced agreement with Major League Baseball will help the company burnish more sports credibility just as it spins off most of its cable networks into a separate company and pushes for its Peacock streaming service to get as broad as those run by competitors.
Meanwhile, the NBA, like other leagues, is eager to get more games on broadcast networks, after years of having only a handful of games on ABC. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver says he expects to see the three rights holders, NBC, Disney and Amazon, experiment with live streaming and interactive features that will make the viewing experience more personalized for each audience member through interactive features. But broadcasting the games will only bring more spotlight to the sport, he believes, on NBC. “Live sports are incredible differentiators,” he says, which is why it “makes sense” for media companies to make such a huge investment to secure the rights.
However, the league is struggling with viewership. The average number of viewers watching NBA games across Warner properties has continued to decline over three seasons, according to data from Nielsen, even though viewership for the NBA All-Star Game reached a new peak earlier this year. NBA games on TNT and TruTV last season averaged about 1.24 million viewers. The viewership rate for these matches in the 2022-2023 seasons, when they were shown only on TNT, was about 1.36 million.
Reggie Miller’s shaky hands are the least of NBC’s worries.
NBC’s new bid to boost basketball’s fan base comes after a strong run at the Paris Olympics, which got a boost by drawing on new elements associated with celebrities and popular culture. The extravaganza was the first in years to have the viewership on both television and live that people have come to expect from the event after a break during which NBC was plagued by Asian timeslot challenges and the coronavirus pandemic, among other factors.
NBC couldn’t let the Olympics falter. The games cost parent Comcast $7.75 billion in licensing fees between 2021 and 2032, and another $3 billion has already been committed through 2036. Now the NBA is creating a similar mandate for the network, which by next year will broadcast professional basketball in prime time on two different nights a week, fundamentally changing its reliance on traditional scripted programming during General. NBCUniversal is believed to pay the NBA an estimated $2.5 billion annually for the opportunity to broadcast 100 regular season games. NBA All-Star Game; And passel from the exclusive first round matches. In a sign of how much NBC wants this sports deal, the company is paying more for NBA games than it does for its current NFL package, according to estimates from independent analyst firm MoffettNathanson.
“It is clear that NBC is investing significantly given the talent it has hired, the production innovations it is bringing, and the marketing and promotions that have already begun,” says Daniel Cohen, executive vice president of global media rights at sports and talent consulting firm Octagon.
NBC’s first NBA test comes Tuesday, when it unveils the first in a series of doubleheaders: a game from the East Coast markets followed by one from the West Coast markets. NBC stations will show the game closest to their time zone, but NBA fans can watch both, no matter where they live, through Peacock. Cordella says it’s not the first time a media company has tried such a maneuver, but it may be the first time a company has tried it during weekday prime times. NBC believes the plan will attract large groups of more engaged fans across the country, who will want to watch a team closer to the area where they live.
Tuesday-njght games will help set the tone for a greater effort. Peacock will show NBA games on Monday nights, a show that NBC feels will bring young sports fans under its umbrella. Then, starting next year, NBC will launch “Sunday Night Basketball” after the end of “Sunday Night Football,” with the hope that NFL fans will continue to tune in after the league season ends.
There is also a tough pitch in the works to bring casual fans back to the sport. NBC is tapping into nostalgia for a bygone NBA era by bringing back John Tesh’s “Roundball Rock” theme and a promising appearance by Michael Jordan as an analyst (the basketball legend should appear on NBC’s inaugural broadcast, says Cordella). NBA games are expected to receive more attention on NBC’s “Today” show, as co-anchors Savannah Guthrie and Craig Melvin shed more light on the sport. But the network is also looking for ways to match the NBA with its entertainment properties. For example, NBA players were recently spotted on an episode of “Love Island.” “We connect entertainment with athletes and NBA stories in ways that will engage these audiences,” says Jenny Storms, NBCU’s director of marketing for entertainment and sports.
No matter how hard the company tries, the games themselves are likely to be the most important pieces of the promotional puzzle. “You have an opportunity to maybe reach more people who might not be the hardcore. You have to keep that in mind while not insulting the hardcore,” says Mike Tirico, who will serve as the lead play-by-play audio for NBC Sports’ NBA coverage. “Can we give you the best X&O of things but also give you a human interest story?” This may not be the first thing introduced to the crowd of people gathered for the cable broadcast.
“The broader audience is always on our minds,” Tirico adds. Without it, NBC wouldn’t be able to declare basketball a winner.