“We recognize that, in some ways, the decline of cable has disproportionately impacted the NBA,” Silver told Kendall Baker of Yahoo Sports AM. “Our young audience isn’t subscribing to cable, and those fans aren’t finding our games.

But there are still roughly 65 million homes in America that are consuming sports in a very traditional way, and even more people on network TV. Is that declining? Yes. Is that going away anytime soon? I don’t believe so. So we want to be on all of those platforms.”

  • Brian_lafeve34@alien.topB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I pay you YT TV, still can’t watch my local team without an additional $20 month to Bally.

    It’s not that all people have cut cable entirely, but not having your exclusive provider on streaming TV services is insane

    • TRES_fresh@alien.topB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      That’s terrible, I thought the whole point of YTTV was to get your local teams’ games. I get pretty much every wizards and commanders game with a good amount of ravens games on it, sucks that your market doesn’t work like that.

    • TheCalvinator@alien.topB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      The regional deals are definitely what keeps the NBA from being accessible. It doesn’t help that Bally’s app is also terrible.

  • ddottay@alien.topB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    It’s absolutely affected MLB and NHL in the same ways, except those leagues have done better to counter it. They’re more attendance driven AND they haven’t allowed people to feel like the regular season doesn’t matter.

    • atlfirsttimer@alien.topB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Wasn’t nba attendance super high last year? I mean you don’t want them building new arenas to up attendance numbers lol

  • ArroganceIsPotent@alien.topB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    ive just been pirating everything that seems interesting to me, until there is a compelling enough way to legally watch things that makes it worth like $10 or so, im going to keep doing that (this also applies for movie and tv in general)

  • pizzaqualitycontrol@alien.topB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    This is going to age me but as a kid I watched all of my teams games on the local public broadcast using an antenna. My parents wouldn’t pay for cable. That is how I became a fan of my home team and basketball. Without free access, the NBA would have been as alien as water polo. The decision to put all the content on cable is going to cost the NBA fans who would grow up and buy tickets etc. This started in the 90s with content migrating behind paywalls but now there is so much good content that doesn’t require cable that we aren’t just going to pay for cable, especially since the product is not as entertaining.

    The free antenna years are never coming back, but it’s not worth subscribing to cable just for live sports and news. The cable providers have been ripping people off for years and playing all kinds of games with billing. The NBA needs to get on a lower cost streaming service or lose fans.

    • jambr380@alien.topB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, I watched all Celtics away games on TV38 using an antenna. I couldn’t watch the home games because they were on cable, so I had to listen to them. I would have been a fan either way, but I had to get creative back then. Definitely videotaped a game if I was going to miss it.

      I used to have League Pass, but it’s just not worth it for the Celtics. Like half of their games aren’t on there.

  • zackychimchim@alien.topB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I live in Saint Louis and it’s hard to justify purchasing league pass when two teams, the Pacers and Grizzlies, are blacked out despite living in a city without a team. For $100 or $149, no game should be blacked out.

    • GuntherTime@alien.topB
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      1 year ago

      If they could figure out a middle ground, that’d be great. I live in northwest Ohio. With league pass I can’t watch Cavs games because Ohio, but I also can’t watch pistons games because I live so close to Michigan. Shits the main reason I’ve held back from getting it.

      • FinalHero13@alien.topB
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        I’m from eastern Kentucky and I can’t get Pacers, Cavs or Grizzlies games. Idk why I can’t get the Grizzlies but I can the Hornets who are closer to me geographically.

  • transizzle@alien.topB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    I’m in this weird spot where I pay for NBA TV, get TNT games through Max, but can’t watch ESPN. Makes no sense to get some kind of cable package just for that subset of games. Last night I had to find a stream of the Kings/Warriors game despite spending a lot on the NBA already.

  • YPM1@alien.topB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Put the games on over the air broadcasts and watch the audience explode. Stop farting around with TNT and YouTube highlights.

  • Jarnis@alien.topB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    1
    ·
    1 year ago

    Bad streaming service with league pass plus stupid blackout rules and exclusivity deals with dinosaur providers that are dying.

    Streaming first, improve quality and service, TV stations can bid for competing broadcasts to the audience that wants to watch linear TV without exclusivity if they want.