Television viewership is "dropping across the board," but NBA Commissioner Adam Silver "has a solution: Make sports look more like video games," according to Peter Kafka of RECODE. Specifically, Silver wants to make them "look like Twitch, Amazon's platform for live gaming." Silver said, "To a lot of older consumers, used to looking at sports, it might look incredibly cluttered." But Silver said that it is the "kind of presentation that could appeal to younger viewers." Silver "argued that traditional TV broadcasts of NBA games and other pro sports have been essentially unchanged for the past 30 years." Silver said it is "almost like a silent movie." But Kafka noted if Silver "wants to see those kinds of changes in the U.S., he will have to hope that ESPN or Turner ... innovate in the way they present their games online." When those deals expire, Silver "certainly expects Facebook, Amazon and other big tech companies to use innovation in the way they present his product as part of their offer." Silver: "The best sales pitch to us is how they're going to find new ways to engage our fans in these telecasts" (RECODE.net, 9/13).
