NBA Commissioner Adam Silver did not seem surprised or concerned with the recent dip in TV ratings, a trend that has been made evident through the start of the 2019-20 season.
The league has suffered from a number of issues, including a number of key injuries, the Hong Kong controversy and the load management debate.
Silver expected the drop in viewership, but noted the league is trending up in every other category:
“I’m not surprised that our ratings are down thus far,” Silver told The Washington Post by telephone from New York on Thursday. “I’m not concerned, either. In terms of every other key indicator that we look at that measures the popularity of the league, we’re up. We’re up in attendance over a record-setting high from last year. Social media engagement remains in the magnitude of 1.6 billion people on a global basis. Our League Pass viewership is up. Our merchandising sales are up. The issue then, for me, is that we’re going through a transition in terms of how [the league] is distributed to our fans, particularly our young fans.”
Unfortunately, the league has been built largely around TV revenue, something that allowed contracts to take an exorbitant jump in 2016 — which have steadily climbed since. The 2020 salary cap projections were already being tempered a bit before the season, and there could potentially be a further drop because of the China issue, which would only make the upcoming offseason much more conservative than the spend-happy summer of 2019.
While he says he's not concerned, Adam Silver and the NBA are trying to figure out ways to combat these ratings and revenue dips. This includes changes in distribution and radical changes to the league itself, like a potential in-season tournament and play-in games for the postseason.
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