.. While the NFL is only suffering from a sinking of very low ratings, the NBA has seen a hefty audience. The question is, how scary should this development make the league?
Here are the numbers from the first three games of the finals between the Heat and the Lakers.
Game 1: 7.4 million viewers
Game 2: 6.1 million viewers
Game 3: 5.9 million viewers
Those numbers for Game 2 and 3 are the lowest of all time for the NBA Finals.
Now for perspective.
Game 2 took place on Friday night. The NBA never plays a final game on Friday night because the number of spectators on Friday is terrible.
Game 3 ended with the NFL going head-to-head on Sunday night.
Which explains the decline of 3 million viewers from Game 1 to Game 3.
The real point is that the first game had seven million spectators while last year the final between the Warriors and the Raptors averaged 15.1 million spectators.
Obviously, scheduling is a big issue. The NBA Finals take center stage in June, when they only have to compete with the NHL and regular-season baseball. Now the finals are competing with the NFL, Postseason Baseball and College Ledge Football.
Like the NFL, you can’t discount how much cord cutting and cable news damage network television. Cable news ratings are up 37% from a year ago. Network prime time ratings are down 47%.
Despite all these factors, the league needs to worry about the finalists not being interested in a rating, especially with the Lakers and LeBron James there.
You don’t have to tell me that this is far from the traditional season, and fans of the building and the NBA play games differently on TV without the crazy atmosphere of the crowd.
You would have argued that since this is an unusual season, the NBA could throw this year’s ratings out of the window and just focus on next season, but the number of spectators for the last two games is so bad that they need to worry. League.
2. Aaron Rogers gave us the worst flex we would see last night.
3. Someone who quit fantasy football three years ago, one of the best decisions of my life, I especially enjoyed this tweet from Marquis Valdes-Scantling, the huge receiver of injured packers.
4. This week’s bad bits are always as appropriate as your time.
5. If you like weird statistics, here’s a doozy about Alex Bragman.
6. Recent guests on SI Media Podcast Al Michaels last week, Dan Patrick two weeks ago and KP Harlan three weeks ago. If you missed any episodes, get up early today and subscribe to the pod.
You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple Plus, Spotify, Stitcher and Google Play.
7. Random video of the day: The Great Nickelodeon Show of the 80s, Double courage, Entered on this date in 1986. Did you know Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Hinan once appeared on this show?
8. Video of the day: Here is the Week 4 version of Angry Runs.
confirm it Notice the previous versions of the train ideas And check out the Sports Illustrated Media podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina Apple, Spotify Or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy Twitter And Instagram.
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