A new promo released by the NBC television network and its streaming outlet Peacock on Monday introduces am element that has been largely missing from the NBA’s attempts to market itself in recent years — humor.
TV ratings for the NBA have ben on the decline in recent years and as of early January, television audience sizes for games on the three network outlets carrying the NBA — ESPN, ABC, and TNT — were off by 25 percent compared to the previous season. The decline has led to a potpourri of theories as to why the NBA, at least on television, appears to be losing its popularity.
In-person attendance at NBA games has been showing the opposite trend, rising steadily over the past several years, setting new records in the 2023-2024 season, according to a Sports Business Journal report.
Variety of Factors Blamed for NBA TV Ratings Drop
The rise in three-point shooting is generally cited as a leading culprit as are the excess of foul calls that slow down games, an overly lengthy regular season that feels meaningless when 20 of the league’s 30 teams qualify for postseason play, poor officiating, and “load management,” which causes star players to sit out games to cope with the rigors of the long season.
Even Charles Barkley, beloved star of the popular TNT Inside the NBA pre- and post-game shows, has taken blame for his supposedly negative commentary which, the theory goes, turns casual fans off to the NBA product.
Even Los Angeles Lakers coach and former ESPN TV NBA analyst J.J. Redick has jumped on the Barkley-blaming bandwagon.
“If I’m a casual fan and you tell me every time I turn on the TV that the product sucks, well, I’m not going to watch the product,” Redick said when asked about the issue in a recent interview.
The new NBC promo, advertising the league’s return to the 98-year-old network after a 23-year absence, may offer at least one solution to the problem — show the lighter side of the game’s superstars.
The comic promo features actor Jack McBrayer revisiting his role from the hit NBC Series 30 Rock, Kenneth the Page. “Kenneth” was in charge of giving visitor tours of the fictional version of NBC on the show. Watch the promo at this link.
New Promo Introduces Humor to NBA Marketing Effort
In the promo, McBrayer’s character is again leading a studio tour, but with three unusual “tourists” in the crowd. The Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum of the NBA champion Boston Celtics, and the NBA’s No. 1 overall draft pick in 2023, the San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama. In the promo, Tatum asks “Kenneth,” whether Keith Morrison — host of NBC’s long-running true-crime series Dateline — is “scary. He seems scary.” And Antetokounmpo pokes fun at Tatum for wearing his NBA championship ring.
NBC has held the contract to broadcast NBA games twice before. First, NBC had the rights in the early days of the league, from 1954 to 1962. The league returned to NBC almost 30 years later at the outset of what fans remember as the Michael Jordan era, from 1990 to 2002.
Earlier this year, NBC again purchased the rights to NBA games in an 11-year deal valued at $76 billion, and which also includes games on Amazon Prime, ESPN, ABC and NBC’s Peacock streaming app.
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NBA Pushes New NBC TV Deal in Comedy Promo Starring Giannis, Wemby, Jayson Tatum