Adam Silver Is Frustrated With American Media As ESPN’s 28 Percent Revelation Threatens $76 Billion Media Deal

NBA is under threat! This has become a common belief in the hoop community these days, obviously because of the league’s declining viewership. Prior to Christmas, ESPN reported a significant 28% drop through November. Sure, the star-studded five-game holiday lineup garnered an average 5.34 million viewers and upped the percentage. But looking from the outside, the NBA still seems to be struggling to attract audience, which could be concerning for their new partners who recently inked a $76 billion media rights deal. Obviously, Adam Silver is not pleased with the growing narrative and responded with some hard-hitting facts.

Responding to the media on The Dan Patrick Show, Silver said, “If you look more broadly at other measures of engagement, our attendance last season was highest in the history of the league. You can’t look at social media over too long a spectrum because it didn’t exist, but when you add in social media, the game has never been more popular in terms of the engagement.” Yes, a whopping 22,538,518 fans attended live games last season, shattering previous season’s record.

Adding to the accolades, the league recorded 873 sellouts and a record average attendance of 18,324. Even the social media numbers are skyrocketing every day. So, fans clearly want to watch NBA games, maybe just not on television anymore. Silver even acknowledged it in a recent interview, “We’re almost at the inflection point where people are watching more programming on streaming than they are in traditional television.” That’s why the league will dive deeper into streaming services once the new media rights deal comes into effect with Amazon Prime Video and others.

When asked if the ongoing narrative frustrates him, the Commissioner said, “Yes, especially when because of the decline in traditional television, decline in cable homes, everyone’s down a bit.” Even other major leagues like the NFL are dealing with declining ratings because of similar issues. However, Silver is more focused on ending this discussion once and for all by bringing in newer audience.

Adam Silver’s European Invasion strategy could boost New Partners’ Confidence

After shutting down the ratings narrative, Silver revealed his role in solving the issue, “I think at the end of the day, my job is to find more people who are inclined to wanna watch live sports, to wanna watch basketball, and convert them into NBA fans.” Yes, the Commissioner’s focus now is on bringing more eyeballs to the league. Maybe, that’s why he recently hinted at starting a standalone league in Europe.

During the recent Paris Games, Silver stated, “We are looking very closely to see if there’s an opportunity to professionalize the game to another level here, to create a larger commercial opportunity.” Obviously, expanding to Europe would help the league’s vision of attracting a global audience and solving the viewership problem for good. We saw a glimpse of it when the Spurs vs Pacers clash in Paris became the most viewed NBA global game ever, garnering over 200 million viewers across the league’s social media platforms.

Surely, this is a massive confidence booster for the NBA and the companies that have partnered with the league on the new media rights deal. Hopefully, it will help change the narrative and end Adam Silver’s frustration.