NBA Teams See Jump in Audience on Regional Sports Networks in 2023-24; Will it Affect Talks With Diamond Sports Group?
The Denver Nuggets saw the biggest leap in viewership, fresh off an NBA championship win in 2022-23.
The NBA’s media team is hard at work on negotiations for its next national broadcasting deal these days. League negotiators can now talk with any outlet after their exclusive negotiating window with current TV partners ESPN and TNT lapsed on April 22, and the NBA also has to renegotiate a new agreement with Diamond Sports Group (DSG) for teams whose local rights are owned by Bally Sports regional sports networks (RSNs). A new report from Sports Business Journal regarding NBA ratings on RSNs this year could give the league something to think about in those negotiations, as it decides whether to move on from RSNs in the future.
Key Facts:
- NBA audience on RSNs grew 8% in the 2023-24 season.
- The NBA had aligned its deal with DSG to expire following this year, but must now renegotiate with the company.
- Commissioner Adam Silver has expressed a desire to move away from RSNs in the past.
The NBA saw viewership on RSNs rise 8% during the 2023-24 season, even as its overall ratings stayed flat. The measurement incorporates NBA teams in 25 markets. As is usual with the NBA it performed well among younger audiences, as viewership among this cohort was up 13% year-over-year among 12 to 17-year-olds. The Denver Nuggets saw viewership rise 123%, even as the team’s RSN Altitude is unavailable for an estimated 57% of Denver-area customers thanks to the channel’s five-year dispute with Comcast.
Among teams on Bally Sports channels, the Minnesota Timberwolves saw the highest rise with a 111% jump in viewership. The report did not specify if this included viewers who tuned in to watch the Timberwolves on the Bally Sports+ streaming platform, but it gives Bally Sports’ parent company Diamond Sports Group leverage as the league negotiates with the company on a new deal.
The two NBA teams who left RSNs behind for the first time in the 2023-24 season also saw ratings bumps. Viewership for the Utah Jazz rose 39% after that team’s move to KJZZ for Utah-area customers, and the Phoenix Suns jumped 69% after departing Bally Sports Arizona for local broadcast channels.
Will Data Cause NBA to Make a New, Long-Term Deal with Diamond?
NBA commissioner Adam Silver sees the current TV landscape for what it is, and he knows that RSNs are suffering from the same problems other cable channels are struggling against thanks to increased cord-cutting. In April 2023, Silver said it was time to “reimagine” the NBA's relationships with RSNs, pointing to declines in cable viewership as a reason that the current situation had to change.
Diamond Sports Group holds the local rights to 15 NBA teams currently, and each of these clubs also streams on the Bally Sports+ platform for in-market fans. The league struck a deal with Diamond as part of the company’s bankruptcy court proceedings in November 2023 that allowed Diamond to pay less for its NBA rights for the season, and in exchange the teams whose rights it held would see those rights revert back to them following the end of the season.
DSG’s bankruptcy reorganization plan nullifies that deal, however, and the NBA must now decide if it wants to renegotiate with Diamond for the long term or if it would rather wrap up its dealings with the company as soon as possible. Silver’s strategy in negotiating the Association's national broadcast deals has been to make games as widely available on as many different linear and digital platforms as possible, and he likely wants to do the same with local rights for teams.
Diamond has to agree to a new deal with the NBA before it can emerge from bankruptcy, which could happen as early as June. The company now has a little more leverage in its negotiations with the NBA, thanks to the rise in viewership for NBA teams on RSNs this season.
Bally Sports+
Bally Sports+ is a direct-to-consumer streaming service that offers live games for those who want access to your local Bally Sports RSN without subscribing to a cable or satellite package.