• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, December 23, 2024

Big sports franchises might be having it tough so far this year -- all except the NFL.

NBA games on ABC, ESPN, and TNT are down 19% so far this season to average 1.4 million Nielsen-measured viewers -- and off 25% including NBA TV channel coverage.

Perhaps all this has some of the same effect for men’s and women’s college basketball down 21% and 38%, respectively.

Now, to be fair, these sports franchises are in their early seasonal periods -- very typical for NBA and college basketball fans in yielding lower levels of interest compared to those games closer to the NBA playoff period starting in late spring and the NCAA “March Madness” Tournament.

This is all why the NBA started up the “NBA Cup” tournament last year and just completed another event this year, won by the Milwaukee Bucks.

While the NBC Cup -- a month-long event (this year, November 12-December 17) -- did spike up TV interest a year ago, it moved lower this time around. The Milwaukee Bucks-Oklahoma Thunder NBA Cup Finals were down 35% versus a year ago to 2.99 million viewers on ABC.

College football, which is somewhat of an outlier, is holding its own, however -- down by single-digit percentages in overall TV network/streaming viewing. And NHL viewing is down as well.

Can we make anything of this? Is this a result of the long-term effects of cord-cutting?

Perhaps the the overabundance of program content everywhere is having some supply-and-demand effect.

Also consider the stronger effect that NFL competition has on these sports when programming runs head to head.

But here’s some interesting news. While NFL national TV/streaming ratings per game viewing average 17.5 million viewers through week 11 -- the best numbers since 2015 -- local TV ratings are taking somewhat of a hit: 25 of 32 NFL teams have experienced local TV rating declines, including two in the biggest NFL market: New York.

Poor performances by the New York Giants and New York Jets aren’t helping any.

That said, on the other coast, some better-performing teams -- the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers -- revealed some head-scratching results, down around 7% and 25%. respectively.

Advertising wise, the NFL may be slipping a bit as well -- down 9% to $3.1 billion national TV/streaming dollars so far, according to EDO Ad EnGage. No worries -- playoff season is near.

Sports TV content never seems to be a winner-take-all thing when it comes to on-field/court competition, a financial/advertising perspective -- or perhaps even among fans. (Hey, even the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Kansas City Chiefs, lose a game once in a while.)