The 2007-08 NBA season is still months away, and already the league is making mistakes. According to ESPN, the first NBA Wednesday of the season will air on October 31 — meaning that Opening Night is October 30, or right in the middle of the World Series. And while Opening Night would not have to compete with World Series games, the subsequent season premieres of NBA Wednesday and TNT NBA Thursday would compete with Games 6 and 7 of the Fall Classic, respectively. Needless to say, starting one’s season in the middle of another sport’s championship event is rarely a good idea.
This comes on the heels of a 2006-07 season where the NBA set record lows for regular season, playoff and Finals ratings on broadcast television (ABC). In order to make sure the league does not duplicate that triple crown for a second straight year, mistakes like starting the season during the World Series need to be avoided.
With that in mind, here are some tips to help the NBA draw better ratings for the upcoming season.
#1 – Lose the early start times.
Major League Baseball was smart, moving games on FOX from 1:00 PM to 3:30 PM and doing away with daygames on ESPN. Early afternoon starts rarely draw good numbers, and dropping those low rated games can help artificially boost the overall average rating. ABC averaged a 1.9 rating for seven 1:00 PM starts during the 06-07 regular season, compared to a 2.1 for games in later timeslots. The network also averaged a 2.9 rating for 10 playoff games last year; dumping the two 1:00 PM starts, that average was 3.1 — an increase of 7%.
#2 – Beware the ides of March.
Under no circumstances will the NBA draw a good rating opposite March Madness; in fact last year, ABC drew subterranean numbers of 1.3 and 1.0 opposite the NCAA Tournament. Through five seasons, ABC has averaged a 1.8 rating for 27 games in the month of March, including a 1.4 average for four games last season. Excluding games in the month of March, ABC drew a 2.2 rating last season — a 10% increase over the 2.0 final average.
Those games in March can be replaced with games on more ratings-friendly dates. As I suggested in a previous column, ABC could air a Christmas Day tripleheader; games on Christmas are typically the highest rated of the entire regular season, and are almost guaranteed to draw at least a 3.0 rating. Three games with ratings of 3.0 or higher would be a definite boost to ABC’s regular season ratings (especially if those games were Seattle/Portland, Dallas/Golden State and San Antonio/Phoenix).
#3 – Regionalize.
Last year was only the second season of ABC’s NBA coverage to feature no regionalized games. The lack of regional match-ups is far from the sole reason for the record low 2.0 average, but it likely did not help either. Like Major League Baseball, the NBA has essentially become a regional sport. Why not capitalize on that by featuring some of the strong smaller markets?
For example, ABC could air a few games involving the Utah Jazz, whose popularity is surging in the Salt Lake City market. Obviously, the Jazz are not a team that would fare well in the ratings on the national stage, but airing a few Jazz games and beaming them out to Salt Lake City and surrounding markets would only help draw an audience that may not have been interested in a game involving the Cavs and Pistons.
#4 – Do not compete with the Big Boys.
NFL games on the NFL Network did not draw gigantic audiences last season, but games did draw viewers away from Thursday night NBA games on TNT. Instead of going head-to-head with the NFL, why not have TNT air games on Tuesday nights during the NFL Network’s run of games? There is no shame in running from the NFL. Additionally, it makes no sense to have TNT air an NBA doubleheader on the first night of March Madness; either go dark for the night or air a doubleheader on Monday or Tuesday.
#5 – Pick your playoff spots.
Unlike ESPN and TNT, ABC can essentially pick and choose what games it will air during the playoffs. With that being the case, why not air fewer first round games and more games during the Conference Finals? The Conference Finals draw decent numbers on cable, but can still draw big ratings on broadcast; if Game 6 of the most recent Eastern Conference Finals could draw a 4.5 national rating on TNT, imagine what number it could have pulled on ABC.
ABC could air Games 3, 4, 6 and 7 of the Conference Finals without interrupting its primetime schedule. Games 3 and 4 could air in the afternoon on the Saturday and Monday of Memorial Day weekend. Games 6 and 7 would air on the Friday and Sunday of that week, in prime-time and the afternoon, respectively. While some might think that ABC would be hesitant to spare a night of prime-time for the Conference Finals, keep in mind that the network has been scheduled to air Game 7 of the Conference Finals in primetime on a Sunday night each of the last three years.
#6 – Go after the 2-11s.
The NBA has lost most of its fun, and the sanitized, corporate broadcasts on ABC and ESPN do very little to appeal to the younger demographics. The NBA is in perfect position to appeal to children in a way it has not been able to since the mid-1990s, with young stars like LeBron James, Dwight Howard and Dwyane Wade.
Why not take the game directly to the kids? On Martin Luther King Day, when most NBA teams are in action and playing afternoon games, the league could televise one of those games on The Disney Channel, the highest rated of the three children-oriented networks — and an organization with which the league is already partnered. In the late 1990s, Turner would air an afternoon MLK Day game, including one broadcast between the Pistons and Knicks in 2000 where the network actually had kids call a portion of the game. While this would have very little immediate impact on the league’s ratings, it would go a long way to cultivating a new generation of fans.
#7 – Start the NBA Finals earlier on Sundays.
In 2003, the NBA started its championship series at 8:30 for each game. The early start time was partially blamed for the 6.5 rating the series between the Spurs and Nets drew. Considering Spurs/Cavs just drew a 6.2 rating, with each game starting at 9:00 PM, it is fairly evident that a late start time does not guarantee a great rating.
With that in mind, the NBA should consider moving the start time of games on Sundays to 8:00 PM. While starting the game earlier would not have much of an effect on ratings — though it could result in higher East Coast viewership — it would certainly quiet at least some of the complaints surrounding the NBA Finals.
#8 – Market the players in the league (again).
As mentioned before, the NBA has lost that vibrant, fun streak it had in the mid-1990s. There was once a time where one could say “The Admiral versus Sir Charles”, and everyone would know who was meant and what teams were involved.
Now, very few know of the great young stars in the league, like Gilbert Arenas, Chris Paul, Chris Bosh, Deron Williams or the aforementioned Dwight Howard, as they are rarely on national television and do not have many — or any — endorsements (with the exception of Arenas, who has deals with Adidas and is the cover athlete for NBA Live 08).
Instead of telling the nation how much the “NBA Cares”, a message lost on those who love to crucify the players at every turn, why not focus on some of the individual up and comers? Instead of 30 second spots like the one featured on the right of this page, why not work on spots for some of the lesser known stars?
Detail their skills and career accomplishments, while also focusing on character quirks or nicknames they can easily be identified by. It could be the NBA’s equivalent of the WNBA’s “Have You Seen Her?” ads. And while it might be sad that the NBA would have to ask “Have You Seen Him?” in regards to any of its players, building up lesser-knowns like Deron Williams can only help the league.
