SBJ Media: A Wrinkle In Time For The NBA

Austin Karp here filling in for John Ourand, who I hope is getting a solid dose of sun and crab cakes on the Maryland shore this week.

I binged three episodes from Season 1 of HBO's "Succession" this weekend. That's all I had time for after 100 episodes of "Paw Patrol" with my three-year-old son.

GAME TIME ADJUSTMENT COULD HELP NBA VIEWERSHIP NUMBERS

New TV start times may help East Coast viewers watch more of the new-look ClippersGETTY IMAGES

• After regular-season TV viewership dropped 5% during the 2018-19 NBA season, the league and its national media partners needed to make an adjustment. With LeBron James in L.A., gone was the source of the Eastern Conference's best ratings since 2003 -- and one that helped fuel the early windows of TV doubleheaders. As part of attempt to get back viewers for those early windows on weeknights, the NBA is leaning into the Eastern Time Zone, which has 51% of the NBA TV audience. Next season, there will be only 33 doubleheaders across ESPN and TNT that have start times of 8:00pm and 10:30pm ET. Last season, that doubleheader number was 57.
  
  
• So what can viewers expect this coming season? On ESPN -- zero Wednesday night doubleheaders with those 8:00/10:30pm starts after 18 of those doubleheaders last season. ESPN will still have 14 doubleheaders at 8:00/10:30pm when other nights are factored in, but that's down from a total of 28 last season. For TNT, expect 19 total doubleheaders at 8:00/10:30pm -- down from 29. 
  
  
• The earlier starts should help, as what are expected to be the most-popular TV attractions -- the Lakers, Warriors, Clippers, Rockets and maybe a Zion-fueled Pelicans squad -- all play out West. Last season, with many 8:00pm ET games without LeBron, TNT saw a 23% drop in viewership for the early windows in a doubleheader. For ESPN, the drop was 11%. Now viewers -- maybe even some younger demos -- in markets like N.Y. or Philadelphia or Boston or Atlanta or Miami can watch a late window of a doubleheader. As Charles Barkley said today on NBA TV during the schedule release special: "It would be great for these young kids to not have to stay up till 1:00, 2:00 in the morning. Great move by the NBA if they stick to it." ESPN's Rachel Nichols added on her show, "A cool new thing the NBA is doing this year. ... Making it easier for fans to catch those late West Coast games."  
  
  
  

TO INFINITY AND BEYOND THE ARC

• Disney’s synergy with the NBA has moved past media-rights partner to a different level, according to SBJ’s John Lombardo, who this morning was on hand in Orlando as Adam Silver and Bob Iger helped christen the new NBA Experience at Disney Springs. Having a facility like this -- one that sits right in the heart of an entertainment mecca that attracts over 50 million visitors every year -- is a major brand extension for the league. Lombardo noted the 44,000-square-foot NBA Experience goes well beyond the look and feel of your typical fan fest, using the best of what Imagineers could create as the NBA looks to appeal to those younger demos making a visit to the Magic Kingdom.
  
  
• The opening of the NBA Experience also came on the heels of the second iteration of the Jr. NBA Championships, held near Orlando at the ESPN Wide World of Sports. While overnight ratings for the telecasts on Fox over the weekend were not incredibly high (0.3 to 0.5 range), six telecasts over two days is nice exposure for the fledgling event.

SLOW PLAY ISSUE ON DISPLAY DURING PGA TOUR EVENT

• The nagging issue of slow play in golf spilled over into public view this time when two of the PGA Tour's best young players, Bryson DeChambeau and Brooks Koepka, fumed at each other this past weekend at The Northern Trust. DeChambeau seemingly chafed the entire field when he took over two minutes to read an 8-foot putt. Some pros have been vocal about the detrimental effects of slow play with fans -- and just as importantly casual sports TV fans -- with even the likes of CBS' Nick Faldo taking a shot at DeChambeau on Twitter for playing at a glacial pace. It’s not a good sign when slow play is the trending social media topic during the first event of the FedExCup Playoffs.
  
  
• Golf Channel analysts were quick to address the issue this morning. Jaime Diaz wondered if slow players like DeChambeau have "lost perspective about what actually is the product.” Diaz: "Society is speeding up and this is not necessarily something that golf should be comfortable with.” Golf Channel's Brian Bateman added the footage is "bad for the image of the Tour." Geoff Shackelford: "It’s not entertaining to watch somebody take two minutes to hit a six-foot putt."

 

SPEED READS

• SBJ's John Ourand and Ben Fischer note the Browns are a hot commodity right now. Merchandise and tickets are moving quickly. But perhaps the biggest shift for Baker Mayfield, Odell Beckham Jr. and the rest of the Dawgs will be the hefty dose of national TV coverage. At least four primetime games are slated for the regular season (three in the first five weeks), and NBC could always flex the team into "Sunday Night Football" later in the season if the club stays hot. CBS has the Browns queued up for a number of Sunday afternoon national windows. It's a complete 180 for the team, which has been a non-factor for national TV windows for a number of years.
  
  
• Good to see Ed Werder back with ESPN headed into the 2019 NFL season. He was let go in 2017 as part of layoffs at the network. Very few reporters cover the Dallas market better than Werder does, and he seemed happy to be back with the network, tweeting: “I’m so incredibly appreciative of this opportunity to rejoin this fantastic group of people. … I love representing ESPN.”
  
  
• World TeamTennis recently wrapped up its 44th season -- the first with former NBCU and AOL Sports exec Carlos Silva as commissioner. The season also included the league’s most-watched telecast on record. “It was amazing for the team and for WTT to be on broadcast as it never happened before. CBS did a great job promoting the match,” said Silva, who expects more matches on the broadcast net in 2020. As far as top pieces on social media this season, Silva said: “The most engaging content was Taylor Townsend teaching Billie Jean King how to ‘floss.’ It was a fun, viral moment. I also loved [rapper] Redfoo, who’s now an assistant coach with the Vegas Rollers, skating around the arena to introduce the new team.” 
  
  
• Remember that infamous Jeremy Lin headline from ESPN back in 2012? Seven years later, former ESPN.com mobile content editor Anthony Federico is finding redemption as a Catholic priest just 15 miles from Bristol.

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Something on the Media beat catch your eye? Tell us about it. Reach out to either me (jourand@sportsbusinessjournal.com) or Austin Karp (akarp@sportsbusinessdaily.com) and we'll share the best of it. Also contributing to this newsletter is Thomas Leary (tleary@sportsbusinessdaily.com).