Adam Silver Admits NBA Ratings Are Down, Not Ready to Blame Product

Adam Silver admitted NBA ratings are down this season, but isn’t ready to blame the game’s style of play the other way observers are. 

Speaking to the media before Tuesday’s NBA Cup final in Las Vegas—where the Bucks defeated the Thunder—the NBA commissioner acknowledged “ratings are down a bit,” but was quick to point out “cable viewership is down double digits.” 

“We’re almost at the inflection point where people are watching more programming on streaming than they are in traditional television,” Silver said. “And it’s a reason why for our new television deals, which will enter into next year, every game is going to be available on a streaming service. And as we move to streaming service, putting aside how the actual game is played on the floor, it’s going to allow us from a production standpoint to do all kinds of things that you can’t do through traditional television.”

Through Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinals, viewership for the league’s games on national TV—ABC, ESPN, and TNT—were down 19% year over year, according to Sports Media Watch. Next year, the NBA will enter the first year of its new media-rights deal, which includes traditional TV packages for ESPN/ABC and NBC, but also a streaming-only package on Amazon Prime Video.

Last month saw a high-water mark for streaming, accounting for nearly half of all TV viewing. According to Nielsen, 42% of all TV viewing in November was on streaming.

The commissioner also touched on some theories as to why ratings are down, including Shaquille O’Neal’s on how the three-point shot has made every team play the same style.

“We’re looking at the same thing,” O’Neal said on his podcast in November. “Everybody’s running the same plays. … I don’t mind Golden State back in the day shooting threes, but every team is not a three-point shooter.”

Silver said the idea that NBA offenses have become “cookie cutter” and copycat is something the league is looking into, but went short of blaming it all on the high volume of threes teams are taking.

“[The NBA] is having many discussions about the style of basketball being played,” Silver said. “I would not reduce it to a so-called 3-point shooting issue. I think we look more holistically at the skill level on the floor, the diversity of offense, the fan reception to the game, all of the above.

“I think the game is in a great place. … It’s unfair, I think, to the players to lump them into categories as 3-point shooters or a midrange shooter or big man playing under the basket. It’s an amazing game.”

“Having said that,” he added, “we’re constantly having discussions about whether there are ways to improve stylistically the game on the floor.”

Historically, NBA teams tend to have the defending champion influence their style and strategy and this season has been no different. The Celtics are averaging 51.1 three-point attempts per game, five more than the previous record held by Mike D’Antoni’s 2018–2019 Rockets.

Various solutions have been suggested, from moving the line back to widening the court. Silver wasn’t enthusiastic.

“Historically, at times, we’ve moved the 3-point line,” Silver said. “I don’t think that’s a solution here because then, I think when we look at both the game and the data, I think that may not necessarily do more midrange jumpers, if that’s what people want, but more clogging under the basket.”