NBA vs NFL Christmas Day Ratings

[L.Kizzle]

Well, the NBA got blown out.

Not counting the cable games on ESPN.

NFL had games on CBS, FOX and ABC.
NBA had a double header on ABC.

NFL
CBS - Chiefs vs Raiders - 31mil
Fox - Eagles vs Giants - 29mil
ABC - 49ers vs Ravens - 27.6mil (with the NBA lead-in)

NBA
ABC - Nuggets vs Warriors - 4.1mil
ABC - Lakers vs Celtics - 5mil

[warriorfan]

God damn.

NBA is all butthurt NFL is encroaching on their Christmas games :lol

[Real Men Wear Green]

NFL popularity is nothing new. Maybe NBA could have hit 6 mil with some better match ups but probably not.

[warriorfan]

So I guess last year the Bucks Boston game had 6 million watching

They reported that was up 15% from ‘21

So looks like they went backwards a bit this year in terms of ratings. But it looks like NFL didn’t steal as much as you would think.

[L.Kizzle]

Over 85+ million combined in 3 games for the NBA vs under 15 million in 5 games for the NBA.

[L.Kizzle]

So I guess last year the Bucks Boston game had 6 million watching

They reported that was up 15% from ‘21

So looks like they went backwards a bit this year in terms of ratings. But it looks like NFL didn’t steal as much as you would think.

True. But they don't go head-to-head often.
I still don't like the NBA stopped doing Thursday games until the NFL wraps up.

[warriorfan]

True. But they don't go head-to-head often.
I still don't like the NBA stopped doing Thursday games until the NFL wraps up.

Especially with how lame the Thursday Night NFL games have been. I would have watched hoops over almost all of those games.

[L.Kizzle]

Especially with how lame the Thursday Night NFL games have been. I would have watched hoops over almost all of those games.
And it's on Prime. Do they even have a ratings system for streams?

[Im so nba'd out]

Humbling for the nba

[warriorfan]

And it's on Prime. Do they even have a ratings system for streams?

I’m not sure how they work that out. I remember a thing people were saying when people were talking about decline in sports viewership ratings was that it isn’t counting all the streamers, both legal and illegal.

I imagine they figured some way to work it out by now but I don’t know really.

[L.Kizzle]

Humbling for the nba

How so? People that don't even watch Football will have a game on. Do you know how many SuperBowl parties I've been at where the party starter don't even watch Football.
Not Like that with basketball.

[L.Kizzle]

NBA needs more games on network TV. I swear most of the games are on TNT. Even the conference Finals are split between TNT and ESPN.
All NFL playoff games are on network TV.

[warriorfan]

How so? People that don't even watch Football will have a game on. Do you know how many SuperBowl parties I've been at where the party starter don't even watch Football.
Not Like that with basketball.

Yeah. I think that’s why basketball players get paid so much and have guaranteed contracts and all that.

Football is such an institution it doesn’t even really matter who’s playing and people will watch or like you said just have it on in the background.

With NBA you better have some big time stars drawing in viewers because if you try to roll out 2 trash teams with no interesting players…Good luck getting people to watch

[dazzer87]

How embarrassing……:roll: Thank god next year Christmas day is on a Wed….:lol

[90sgoat]

Regular season NBA is trash though.

Unwatchable garbage.

I wouldn't watch a single game if not for Luka and I'm not alone the numbers show it.

[SATAN]

I wouldn't watch a single game if not for Luka and I'm not alone the numbers show it.

Sad. Very sad.

[tpols]

Well, the NBA got blown out.

Not counting the cable games on ESPN.

NFL had games on CBS, FOX and ABC.
NBA had a double header on ABC.

NFL
CBS - Chiefs vs Raiders - 31mil
Fox - Eagles vs Giants - 29mil
ABC - 49ers vs Ravens - 27.6mil (with the NBA lead-in)

NBA
ABC - Nuggets vs Warriors - 4.1mil
ABC - Lakers vs Celtics - 5mil

The Championship generated 4.6 million views so the NFL still has a lot of catching up to do.

[Baller234]

The NFL has basically become a holy institution. Nobody can compete with them right now.

Having said that, the NBA product is trash. Too many games, very low stakes and a bunch of prima donnas the average person can't stand.

[90sgoat]

a bunch of prima donnas the average person can't stand.

This might be the biggest reason.

The NBA wants us to act as if a bunch of overpaid Tik Tok'ers who can't even medal in FIBA World are worth following?

Jokic, Giannis, Luka, Wemby, (Lebron), (Curry).

Those are at this moment the only real stars in the league worth following. The rest are boring and bland.

[Baller234]

This might be the biggest reason.

The NBA wants us to act as if a bunch of overpaid Tik Tok'ers who can't even medal in FIBA World are worth following?

Jokic, Giannis, Luka, Wemby, (Lebron), (Curry).

Those are at this moment the only real stars in the league worth following. The rest are boring and bland.

The NBA lost it's way when they became the "black" league.

And no I'm not referring to the fact that the majority of the league is black. That was true of the Jordan era as well and during that time period the sport was never more popular.

Sometime after that the league and it's players leaned very heavily into the gangsta rap image and things were never the same. A lot of fans were alienated as a result. Just look at your average All-Star weekend. Might as well be the BET awards. Lol someone like my father couldn't care less.

When they're not acting like rappers they're acting like wannabee activists and high fashion weirdos. They lost the blue collar everyman.

[SaltyMeatballs]

A preseason NFL game racks in more views than NBA christmas games :lol

[iamgine]

Why compare to NFL though. The NBA is doing well regardless of how NFL is doing.

[SaltyMeatballs]

On a side note, I wonder how many views don't get counted because of streaming

[ILLsmak]

True. But they don't go head-to-head often.
I still don't like the NBA stopped doing Thursday games until the NFL wraps up.

Just like silver saw it about the ASG, that some shit needed to change... he needs to make the NBA good again. He needs to let people play defense. This shit is just stupid. It's boring. Got like little kids and dudes who wear jerseys around the house with t shirts under them watching it now.

-Smak

[Wally450]

This is not surprising. A Panthers Commanders Thursday night game would probably get more viewers than a Celtics Lakers game.

[tpols]

If you look at the NBA ratings they peaked in MJs era, fell down a little bit afterwards, and then resurged with the Warrior Cavalier battle. The 2020 "Finals" had the lowest viewership in sports history. And it's been ass ever since. NBA is just weak nowadays in terms of respect. I feel like the league is gonna die out soon in terms of popularity. Lebron and Curry are the only household names left and they're both old.

[bladefd]

NBA needs more games on network TV. I swear most of the games are on TNT. Even the conference Finals are split between TNT and ESPN.
All NFL playoff games are on network TV.

Nba needs to return to NBC. Although doesn't hockey have a deal with NBC? Cbs might want to enter the NBA fray. ABC/Espn coverage is brutal half of the time.

[Jasper]

NFL popularity is nothing new. Maybe NBA could have hit 6 mil with some better match ups but probably not.

better matchups for sure

[tpols]

Nba needs to return to NBC. Although doesn't hockey have a deal with NBC? Cbs might want to enter the NBA fray. ABC/Espn coverage is brutal half of the time.

They host the NBA Finals on prime time ABC and they still get no love.

[L.Kizzle]

They host the NBA Finals on prime time ABC and they still get no love.

I mean that's it. 75% of games are on TNT. Conf Finals aren't even on network TV.
TNT used to be the secondary station. Now, I LOVE Turner Sports but the All-Star game should be in network TV.

[FKAri]

Every NFL game is like a playoff NBA game. They matter. The NBA regular season is a boring slog.


If you look at the NBA ratings they peaked in MJs era, fell down a little bit afterwards, and then resurged with the Warrior Cavalier battle. The 2020 "Finals" had the lowest viewership in sports history. And it's been ass ever since. NBA is just weak nowadays in terms of respect. I feel like the league is gonna die out soon in terms of popularity. Lebron and Curry are the only household names left and they're both old.

In the US. Worldwide it's been rapidly rising since the early 90s.

[L.Kizzle]

Every NFL game is like a playoff NBA game. They matter. The NBA regular season is a boring slog.



In the US. Worldwide it's been rapidly rising since the early 90s.

They play once a week.

[Baller234]

They play once a week.

NBA teams should only play twice a week.

Do it like Football and claim a day during the week. Everyone knows their team plays Sunday, sometimes Monday or Thursday. Those are football days.

Figure out what days are basketball days and go from there.

[FKAri]

They play once a week.

Which is why they matter. Imagine if the NBA schedule was like that. Each game would be huge. I wonder how that would change the economics of the league. Viewership would soar but the total money coming in would be less. Or at least I imagine the NBA and PA have predicted as much since they've never thought of changing the format.

[L.Kizzle]

NBA teams should only play twice a week.

Do it like Football and claim a day during the week. Everyone knows their team plays Sunday, sometimes Monday or Thursday. Those are football days.

Figure out what days are basketball days and go from there.
Well, they have designated days. At least until after Football season is over its TNT Thursdays.
Wed and Fri for ESPN and Sunday after NFL on ABC (in some Saturdays as well.)

NBA us non contact which is why the play 7 days a week. Boxers don't fight once a week either.

[Real Men Wear Green]

Any discussion about the health of the NBA ends when the subject comes to money. Sure football is more popular. That doesn't mean the league isn't doing very well. Just because Warren Buffet has more money doesn't mean Bill Gates isn't rich. Every team could get sold for billions. If the Lakers or Knicks were actually sold we could only gutted what the price would be. The second maybe third-best player on some teams will be making 50 mil per year. The TV contracts at going to be well over 3 billion per year when the current contract expires. They play that long season because it makes money.

[Kblaze8855]

Dont mind me I’m just looking for some of the conservatives who were swearing the NFL was gonna fade away soon during the kneeling issue. I believe I specifically asked Johnnysic to check back in 5 years when he claimed they would lose the working class and be gone in a few years. I’ll have to send up a Trump shaped bat signal soon.

[SouBeachTalents]

It's crazy how often we have this discussion. A sport where you play once a week and just 17 games in total is going to draw more interest than a sport where you play 3-4x a week and 82 games in total. The fact of the matter is a random regular season NBA game, even between two elite teams means virtually nothing in the grand scheme of things, while one game in the NFL season can completely alter the playoff picture.

The crazy part is, for all the shit the NBA gets for it's current product, the NFL product imo is a shell of what it used to be. The rules favor the offense too much, hard hits are outlawed, you're legitimately not allowed to tackle the QB, onside kicks are literally impossible to recover, and they basically eliminated kick returns.

Going back to the original thread topic, while I don't think they would reach the levels of the NFL, since football is more popular here than basketball, if the NBA only had 17 games, I can guarantee you those Christmas games would be drawing 10 million viewers, esp if they weren't in competition with the NFL.

[bladefd]

I mean that's it. 75% of games are on TNT. Conf Finals aren't even on network TV.
TNT used to be the secondary station. Now, I LOVE Turner Sports but the All-Star game should be in network TV.

Aren't cbs and tnt owned by the same company? Wonder why cbs wouldn't want to invest in conference finals on cbs

[ILLsmak]

Dont mind me I’m just looking for some of the conservatives who were swearing the NFL was gonna fade away soon during the kneeling issue. I believe I specifically asked Johnnysic to check back in 5 years when he claimed they would lose the working class and be gone in a few years. I’ll have to send up a Trump shaped bat signal soon.

To be fair, they kinda did away with the kneeling quietly as well.

Everyone seems to have forgotten. There is more political stuff in the NBA these days imo. At least that makes news.

-Smak

[Real Men Wear Green]

To be fair, they kinda did away with the kneeling quietly as well.

Everyone seems to have forgotten. There is more political stuff in the NBA these days imo. At least that makes news.

-Smak

Both sports are more profitable than ever. Hard to say they were hurt by politics when there is no tangible proof of that.

[bison]

Even if you adjust the NBA schedule to be more NFL-like, doing the math you'd still have the NFL leading in ratings. But where the NBA really closes the gap with the NFL is it's international audience. The NBA has an established presence outside North America whereas the NFL has none. The growth of the international game is at least the one thing the NBA can hang its hat on.

[bison]

The NBA regular season is a boring slog.

It's amazing how many of you complain and whine about the NBA being boring, yet are still here posting 50 times a day. Perhaps consider it isn't the NBA that has dwindled as a product, but rather your own declining attention span. I love the fact that NBA is on every night for a good chunk of the year. Always a game to pop in on.

[Kblaze8855]

To be fair, they kinda did away with the kneeling quietly as well.

Everyone seems to have forgotten. There is more political stuff in the NBA these days imo. At least that makes news.

-Smak

there is nothing to stop anybody from kneeling. Briefly, they tried to just say if you don’t want to stand for the anthem, you don’t have to come out at all during it but they got rid of even that. You can pretty much do what you want. The NFL was the biggest thing going in America, even at the height of the ridiculous protests.

What’s funny to me is people on both sides of the argument claimed they were protesting the NFL even while the NFL was getting five times the ratings of other things considered popular.

The NFL is like Chick-fil-A. There is nothing your protests can do no matter what your cause is.

[fsvr54]

We watch the games on stream sites though

[warriorfan]

there is nothing to stop anybody from kneeling. Briefly, they tried to just say if you don’t want to stand for the anthem, you don’t have to come out at all during it but they got rid of even that. You can pretty much do what you want. The NFL was the biggest thing going in America, even at the height of the ridiculous protests.

What’s funny to me is people on both sides of the argument claimed they were protesting the NFL even while the NFL was getting five times the ratings of other things considered popular.

The NFL is like Chick-fil-A. There is nothing your protests can do no matter what your cause is.

idk man colin claims he got blacklisted because of it

Honestly I just think kaep never improved, he actually regressed. Once teams got a scouting report on him he never adjusted. He was maybe potentially good enough to be a backup somewhere but with all his drama it’s just not worth it for a back up QB.

[Norcaliblunt]

But the in season tournament was a success. Who cares?

[JohnnySic]

Dont mind me I’m just looking for some of the conservatives who were swearing the NFL was gonna fade away soon during the kneeling issue. I believe I specifically asked Johnnysic to check back in 5 years when he claimed they would lose the working class and be gone in a few years. I’ll have to send up a Trump shaped bat signal soon.

LOL. I never said the NFL would fold. I said they'd lose some of their target audience, which they did.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/289979/nfl-number-of-tv-viewers-usa/