Why Aren't Viewers Jumping Through Hoops?

It's only just over one month in to the NBA regular season, but league officials are most likely to be very concerned about the drop in ratings at both the national and local levels. Circumstances such as the decline of the Warriors and rough starts by New York (Knicks) and Chicago are likely contributors at the national ratings level. Not having Steph Curry and the dominating Warriors on the national game seemingly every week does hurt.

However, it is also possible that the decision to move up the start of the regular season competing with the first two nights of the World Series also contributed. The rumors about possible major adjustments to the regular season schedule moving forward, while only speculation, might have made some casual fans think twice about how closely to follow early regular season games.

One consideration which should be noted is that the NBA no longer has its "permanent" time for a national showcase. Having a full season Thursday night NFL package, along with the NCAA tournament in March, has combined to destroy the consistency which TNT enjoyed for years of Thursday nights being for NBA telecasts. ESPN features college games and is not consistent with doubleheaders on Wednesday and Friday like they used to be.

It is still too soon for the ABC package of Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games to kick in, although their Sunday package has become inconsistent over the past couple of seasons as well. Not having a consistent or regular day and time for national games is more important than the networks realize. Let's keep an eye on how the ratings go as the season develops.






Speaking of ratings, the local NFL telecast ratings for the NYC market for this coming Sunday (12/8) could be very interesting for the early game. CBS airs the Jets vs. Dolphins locally. To be nice, this is not the most meaningful football game available. Fox will be airing the San Francisco vs. New Orleans battle of two of the NFC powerhouses at the same time. The NFL should be pleased that an "out of town" game figures to be the bigger draw.


On the MLB side, fans holding out hope for more 'over the air' telecasts face still another struggle after the announcement that teams can now control their own live streaming rights. (This had been controlled by MLB until now.) Although the stipulation is that only "in market" streaming falls under this policy, it allows for teams to make deals with tech companies beyond the regional sports network. Whether or not this happens depends upon the terms of the current contract between local teams and their regional networks.

One example could very well be Amazon, which earlier this year purchased 15% of YES Network. This situation could lead to more such opportunities for the larger market teams that have a larger metro audience to serve.



NEW YORK: As of press time, still no definite announcement on how WFAN will replace its afternoon show now that Mike Francesa has left as full-time host. Although Francesa could remain as a contributor on the station, it appears that whoever the host will be will not start until the week of January 6th. Evan Roberts is expected to be a part of the new afternoon show, which will begin against increasingly strong competition from The Michael Kay Show on WEPN.


SAN FRANCISCO: The KNBR 680 broadcast of the big 49ers game against New Orleans on Sunday will be without long time analyst Tim Ryan. The team suspended Ryan for (at least) this week's broadcast following racially insensitive remarks Ryan made while appearing on the station's Murph & Mac morning show while discussing Ravens QB Lamar Jackson. 


KANSAS CITY: The Chiefs will have a new flagship radio station starting with the 2020 season, which will be WDAF-FM 106.5 The Wolf. Mitch Holthus will be back as play-by-play voice, making 2020 his 27th season of calling the games. Sister station KCSP Sports Radio 610 will air the surrounding programming, including the coach and QB shows and weekly press conferences.