Bluesky for NBA content?? Lol. Not even the official NBA has a bluesky account. I think X/Twitter gets the most views for NBA content followed by TikTok but maybe those two are reversed? Next comes YouTube after those 2.
It's hilarious when people shill for that fringe platform. The only thing it has is extremist political content and child exploitation content. Literally no one is there for NBA content, some people just want to normalize the cringe fringe.
It's not complicated. The regular season means nothing. I used to watch 40 games a year and went to another 20-30 games in person. Now I MIGHT watch 10 regular season games on TV and go to 5-6 games a year when I get free corporate tickets that have access to one of the lounges. If the stars won't show up and play every night why should I bother turning the games on or spend money to show up at the Toyota Center? Let me know when the playoffs start and real basketball begins. Best decision we made was dumping our season tickets a couple years ago.
If a family of 4 is spending that much on that stuff and complaining, they need to re-consider their life choices and possibly a grocery store.
In case you don’t have the ability to use google here’s a link. http://amp.awfulannouncing.com/tech/sports-bluesky-age-twitter-x.html
12 years is an eternity in the entertainment landscape. A ton of things have changed and TV has not been thriving. Live sports was supposed to be the last bastion for cable companies to keep subscribers, but that won't last forever as young people who have never had cable in their lives aren't going sign up for an expensive package when they can easily find a free illegal stream for the one thing they want. To pin the ratings drop primarily on one's pet peeve whether it be too many three pointers, refs, politics, sports betting, or Doris Burke is silly. Those things have been in play for almost a decade now. It doesn't explain the dramatic drop this season. Some people might point to the NFL holding strong, but not all sports are going to be as resilient. The NHL's ratings are down steeply as well. The WWE's ratings are down 60% from 12 years ago and it's not because of Doris Burke.
I don't think it has anything to do with politics. Politics in America swing back and forth and by popular vote it's usually pretty close. About half the country would stop watching because of their political view but most people will watch regardless of whatever "woke" message is being promoted if they are a fan, just like people on this message board. I think it has more to do with the lack of believing your team has a chance to win, overt tanking and more than anything else, the inability to easily view games. The way the NBA has handled TV rights has been terrible for the average fan that just wants to turn on the tv anywhere and watch their team play. It's been their own doing. When I was a kid I could turn on UPN 20 on local TV without cable and catch every Rockets game. I could just be flipping through the channels and not knowing a game was on stumble upon it. If people want to watch their local NFL teams, they don't need cable. Just turn on Fox or CBS. Even when it's a primetime game being broadcast nationally, for folks in the local market they can still catch the game on their local TV broadcast. I don't even know which cable companies I can and can't have in order to watch the Rockets on SpaceCity Network. I remember when they first came out with the comcast sports channel or whatever the hell it was called you could only have comcast. Sometimes I'd go out to a bar or a restaurant and ask if they could change the channel to the Rockets and a lot of times they didn't even get it because they had direct tv or something else. For a looooong time local establishments didn't have the Rockets on tv during Rockets games. It's better these days but still...Not having the local NBA team at a sports bar is crazy work. I haven't had cable in almost 15 years now. I was fairly early on the cord cutting train so I've been streaming them through untracked methods for years now. I've done the internet streams, KODI and now I'm using an IPTV service. I'm sure none of that is tracked in the viewing numbers.
I can’t stand LeBron personally but I think it’s unfair to criticize the little he talks about it (when he’s asked point blank) while giving a pass to Popovich, Aaron Rogers, Kerr, Harrison Butler, etc… hell you can go back to Brett Favre, Danica Patrick, Kareem, and Ali if you wanted. LeBron has a million other things you can criticize him for that are more valid than the little he actually talks about politics. I also don’t know what Coherd is talking about here with the NBA being “detached from regular people”. The NBA isn’t like marketing to only elitist sports fans or something. I don’t really get the correlation to the Democratic Party. As others have noted ratings are down in the NHL too. They are down across the board on nearly anything that is typically tied to basic cable. If we want to talk about being “detached” why isn’t Coherd or anyone else talking about these giant media companies being detached from what regular people can afford?? Have you seen how much it costs to keep a cable streaming service like Direct TV, YoutubeTV, or whatnot?? You are paying now over 100 bucks a month basically for live sporting events (many of which you can see mostly on other platforms) and the local news. Maybe it’s as simple as greedy price hikes from these companies pricing themselves pit of the market of “regular people” who can’t justify streaming cable anymore.
I can speak for myself that I’m seriously considering cutting off YouTubetv because they are jacking up rates and I get sick of how live tv now has so many freaking commercials. It’s unwatchable now. I only have it for live sports and local news. So my guess is the NBA and other sports are losing the non superdiehard viewers who are cutting off cable for the same reason I am. I’m diehard though so I have NBALP while most are just fans that just catch a game when they see a good matchup on TNT or ESPN fans. However my theory though is those fans still love the sport they just don’t keep up with it until the games are relevant later in the season and playoffs. Honestly though the salaries and the owner earnings are kind of bloated right now anyways so it would make sense for there to be a new CBA that brings things back down to earth a bit, and as a diehard fan it could be interesting to have a salary cap maneuver period that adds some intrigue like the Tracy McGrady contract year where there was serious cost cutting going on and it made for a ton of interesting trades. Like I love Fred Van Fleet but does anyone think this is a player that is really a 47 million dollar a year can’t miss talent??
MTV Rock n Jock basketball had the right rules. 10 pointers in the 4th. 25 point shot on a 25 foot rim.
Another big issue is menu diving on streaming services. I honestly don't know what NBA games are on where that aren't Rockets games. I have Max and it's way more difficult to find something on there than on normal cable (Fubo, DirecTV). The transition to streaming has been awful for everyone. Before I'd just load up the cable, scour the list to see if there's anything and go on with my day. It was all in one place, easy to find.
