Year-by-year ratings for NBA games on ABC through the final Sunday of March.
The record low 1.0 rating for Suns/Kings last Sunday is only the latest embarrassment for the NBA on ABC. The franchise that started in 2002 has been nothing less than a pathetic failure and a joke — and more than anything, a reflection on the lack of dedication ESPN has to sports.
But all that has been well documented. This post is not about bashing the trash that is ESPN’s presentation of NBA basketball. This post is about solutions.
Cosmetic changes.
- First, something easy. No more Pussycat Dolls. The ‘music group’ that assaults the ears of NBA fans on a weekly basis adds nothing to the presentation games. If ABC wants to present NBA fans with ‘eye candy’, it would be far less obtrusive to simply amp up the number of incessant cheerleader shots when coming out of commercial breaks.
- No more ‘celebrities’. Heading into commercials, ABC routinely presents viewers with some F-list actor or actress that nobody has ever heard of telling viewers “You’re watching the NBA on ABC, home of the NBA Finals”. Yet another sad attempt to lure the casual viewer, this convention is so tacky that it makes NBA games seem like the old 1990s TGIF.
- No more Dan Patrick or Mark Jackson. Patrick adds a measure of credibility to ABC’s NBA pregame show, but it is clear that his interest is sorely lacking. Meanwhile, Mark Jackson could make any action seem dull and listless.
- Better theme music. God forbid ABC ever use Roundball Rock and actually please NBA fans; at the very least, the network should dump the listless, tired “Fast Break” theme that Non-Stop Music inflicted upon the sports world. The slow, droning music does very little to excite, and sounds like it should be used as transitional music on a 90’s sitcom.
Scheduling changes.
- It does not take much knowledge of the business of sports to know that a regular season game will not do very well against a playoff game. And yet ABC continues to air NBA games against NCAA Tournament games on CBS. Every March, NBA ratings tumble to embarrassing lows, rivaling the NHL. Solution: axe March games. Take the month off; at this point, NBA fans do not associate ‘big games’ with ABC anyway, and are more likely to turn to the far more dedicated TNT cable network. Disney has dragged the league down to the point where nobody will care if there is not a game on Sunday afternoon.
- Replace the four March telecasts with games in higher-rated months. ABC does fairly well in the ratings in January and early February, when college basketball is barely registering a 1.5 and NASCAR is still months away. Christmas Day games are almost guaranteed to draw at least a 3.0 rating, so ABC should add two of the games to a Christmas Day tripleheader (this year is the the lone Christmas for the foreseeable future where the NFL will likely not schedule a game), and then possibly add two other Sundays of coverage in January (or maybe two Saturday night games during the month).
- Shift the games to later times. Obviously, ABC is not going to take the risk of having Pacers/Bobcats pre-empt even a second of their Sunday night line-up. However, shifting the tip of late NBA games to 4:15 means that telecasts would end at 6:45 — leaving a 15 minute buffer just in case the game runs long, and leaving the possibility open for a postgame show. Doubleheader coverage could start 1:00, with a week-in-review type pregame show, followed by the tip of the first game at 1:40.
- Actually promote the games. While ESPN has promoted NBA games more than ever this season, the fact remains that those promotions are not on the network where the games are actually airing. What good is it to ABC if promotions for NBA games are only airing on ESPN? NBC, even into its final year covering the league, placed at least one NBA advertisement on its prime-time schedule. What does it say about ABC’s commitment to sports when there are more Grey’s Anatomy ads during NBA games than NBA ads during Grey’s Anatomy?
These solutions will not even be considered by ABC. Expect more of the same coverage next season from the network. More ratings-suicide by airing less-than-compelling matchups in March. More F-list celebrities and pop music groups. More listless analysis and theme music. And expect it for the next several years, because even if NBC is in fact making room for NBA games, David Stern is inclined to extend this disastrous television deal into the next decade.
And ten years from now, after more than a decade of Disneyfied NBA coverage, the league will look at a 1.0 rating wistfully.
