By: Owen Williams
As the 2024-25 season comes to an end, the NBA has the opportunity to reflect on its viewership trends ahead of its new media rights agreement for the 2025-26 season. Regular season viewership ratings have steadily declined since 2012, and Finals viewership has seen similar decreases since 2015.[1] Many factors have contributed to this trend, with viewer accessibility playing a significant role.[2] This multifaceted issue is influenced by broadcasting changes, fan engagement, and gameplay style.[3] The league’s new media rights deal could offer solutions that encourage stronger viewership performance across a variety of platforms.
Declining ratings have been “one of the defining storylines” for this current NBA season.[4] Early season numbers showed a 19% decrease in viewership for the league’s primary broadcast partners.[5] Following the All-Star break, however, the league is “averaging 1.76 million viewers across ESPN and TNT platforms, a 5% year-over-year decline.”[6] Ratings data also shows a decline in TV viewership of NHL and NFL games, largely attributable to a general decline in cable subscriptions around 8% yearly.[7] This, alongside a massive 41% increase in the league’s social media views, demonstrates a transitionary period for NBA media, mirrored by a shift towards streaming services in the new media rights deal.[8]
The major factors that could be specifically contributing to declining NBA viewership include load management, gameplay changes, and accessibility challenges.[9] From 2003 to 2023, all-stars in the league have played an average of 15 less games per season, due in large part to player fatigue and injury recovery during the 82-game season.[10] Viewers hoping to watch their favorite stars seem less likely to tune in via broadcast or in person when chances are high that they are saving themselves for playoff runs or nursing injuries. The NBA has long been criticized for its “bloated regular season schedule,” but a shortened season would almost certainly lead to a significant initial loss in revenue that would hurt teams and officials league-wide.[11]
Changes in league-wide strategy and gameplay is a more controversial factor that may or may not have merit as a reason for decreased viewership. Some suggest that the record increase of “37.4 3PA per game for each team” has caused the game to lose its “physicality” and “dull” the viewing experience for fans.[12] Others contend that this criticism is fueled by nostalgia for an older style of play and negativity towards new gameplay adaptations, to “create a discourse fueled by polarization.”[13] Regardless of whether fans are deterred by the three-point shooting increase, debates instigated by media personalities that encourage the disparagement of modern styles and players are, at the very least, unlikely to increase viewership.[14]
The NBA’s new media rights deal may address the third factor that could be contributing to loss of viewership: accessibility. The new agreement with Disney, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video was signed in July of 2024.[15] The agreement will bring the NBA $76 billion over a period of 11 years, an increase from the previous contract of 160% per season.[16] Disney’s ABC and ESPN will take the majority of games, with NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime streaming their own portions and exclusive events.[17] ABC had much success during the Christmas stretch, and was responsible for a large portion of the ratings recovery from the beginning of the season.[18] TNT was initially denied a continuation of their long-standing agreement with the league, but after a lawsuit brought by Warner Bros. Discovery, the NBA agreed to extend their partnership while licensing TNT’s “Inside the NBA” program to ESPN.[19]
The new agreement, especially the streaming rights apportioned to Amazon Prime Video, suggests a movement away from traditional TV broadcasts and towards modern streaming services.[20] A transition away from TNT’s cable channels towards NBC’s free TV service could boost viewership, but others argue too many avenues with the associated paywalls could initially harm numbers.[21] The paywall price for NBA League pass, the only platform to watch games that are not nationally televised, already costs about $16.99-$24.99 per month.[22] Ultimately, the new media rights deal seems to be a step in the right direction, but a far from perfect system that would maximize viewer accessibility.
NBA viewership remains a concern going into the new media rights agreement, but the distribution platforms set to shine in the 2025-26 season are hoping to help turn the downward trend around. It will take more to address the issues of gameplay, load management, and the rise of social media engagement over long-form content, but these new media partnerships offer opportunities for broader exposure and high-quality fan engagement to begin the process of improving the NBA product.
[1] Grayson Sampson, Why Are the NBA Ratings Declining?, Granite Bay Gazette (Apr. 6, 2025), https://gohsonline.com/8704/sports/why-are-the-nba-ratings-declining/.
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Kevin Maguire, Looking Into the NBA’s Low TV Ratings, The Mass Media (Feb. 24, 2025), https://umassmedia.com/38062/opinions/looking-into-the-nbas-low-tv-ratings/.
[5] Id.
[6] Colin Salao, NBA TV Ratings Are Down 5%. NBC May Reverse That Trend Next Year, Front Office Sports (Feb. 19, 2025), https://frontofficesports.com/nba-tv-ratings-are-down-5-nbc-may-reverse-that-trend-next-year/.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Sampson, supra note 1; Maguire, supra note 4.
[10] Sampson, supra note 1.
[11] Jack Bedrosian, The NBA is Jumping to Conclusions About Its Ratings Fall, Jacobin (Jan. 22, 2025), https://jacobin.com/2025/01/nba-ratings-fall-media-revenue.
[12] Sampson, supra note 1.
[13] Maguire, supra note 4; Bedrosian, supra note 11.
[14] Maguire, supra note 4.
[15] NBA Signs 11-Year Media Rights Deal with Disney, NBC and Amazon, NPR (July 24, 2024, 9:47 PM), https://www.npr.org/2024/07/24/nx-s1-5050991/nba-tv-deal-disney-nbc-amazon-tnt.
[16] Brad Adgate, NBA’s New Media Rights Agreement Reflect the Growth of Streaming, Forbes (July 29, 2024, 1:34 PM), https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradadgate/2024/07/29/nba-new-media-rights-agreement-reflect-the-growth-of-streaming/.
[17] Id.
[18] Jon Lewis, NBA Ratings Recovery: ABC Viewership Up Ten Percent, Sports Media Watch (Mar. 31, 2025), https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2025/03/nba-ratings-recovery-abc-viewership-up-ten-percent/.
[19] Kerry Flynn, Warner Bros. Discovery Ends NBA Lawsuit, Axios (Nov. 18, 2024), https://www.axios.com/2024/11/18/nba-wbd-lawsuit-inside-nba-tnt.
[20] Adgate, supra note 16.
[21] Salao, supra note 6.
[22] Sampson, supra note 1.
