Games featuring teams like the Warriors and Trail Blazers are tougher to watch for East Coast residentsNBAE/GETTY IMAGES
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver suggested that the start times for nationally televised games involving Western Conference teams could be bumped up beginning next season in order to reduce the negative impact on ratings seen this year. Silver during an interview with NBC's Craig Melvin said, "It may make sense to play a little bit earlier in the West, and that's something we're going to talk to our teams about this summer." Each NBA television partner this past regular season saw a decline in viewership in part because of LeBron James' move to the Lakers after spending all of his career to that point in the Eastern Conference. Silver even referenced James' move to L.A. by saying, "Not having him in the East has clearly impacted ratings." Silver also pointed out that 50% of all households in the U.S. are located in the Eastern time zone and noted networks are "invariably going to lose a lot of viewers around 11, 11:30 -- you can just chart it." Silver: "It obviously would be less convenient to those fans on the West Coast if we played even earlier. I mean, just think about people getting to those arenas after work if you start a game at 6:00pm local time in the West. It's not the most convenient thing. It's not as convenient for a television watcher on the West Coast either" (TODAY.com, 5/21).
