All that noise about the NBA’s ratings slump at the start of the season feels like a joke. Christmas Day saw an uptick, despite the NBA Cup not being the viewership goldmine it was meant to be. The start of 2025 showed a decent trend too. Especially at ESPN. This might be reassuring for ESPN’s latest arrivals. Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley didn’t exactly leap for joy when Inside the NBA was licensed from TNT to ESPN.

Both had very unorthodox suggestions to fix the Disney/ABC-owned network’s cord-cutting woes. At least Chuck’s solution sees a positive proof of concept, which seems to put the NBA’s ratings drama into perspective with the holidays.

The Christmas Cheer gets to ESPN

ESPN started 2025 with a big PR announcement. NBA Countdown saw a 22% increase from last season. Overall, ESPN’s NBA viewership is up 5% from the same time from last year. The network averaged 1.95 million viewers across 35 games. The five Christmas Day games recorded 5.25 million viewers on average. the highest in five years for ESPN and virtually matching the 2019 viewership on December 25. A big reason was airing the games on ABC instead of spreading it across networks.

In December 2024, the NBA Cup group stage saw a 10% dip from last year. TNT had the higher average in comparison to ESPN. Very quickly after that, Charles Barkley was on Dan Patrick’s show talking about the NBA’s ratings dilemma.

“The best ratings we’ve ever had was the year we went on strike and started on Christmas,” Barkley said. “I think we need to seriously consider starting at Christmas because you are wasting your time going up against the NFL and college football. They own the weekends now.”

He said it in the wake of the NFL experimenting with a Yuletide lineup. But the resurgence of the NBA also gave LeBron James the confidence to reclaim the holiday in the name of basketball. ESPN is feeling some of that confidence too. Especially since they will gain the flagship fan-favorite of NBA viewers this year – Inside the NBA.

Shaquille O’Neal and Charles Barkley’s concerns out of bounds

There’s a reason the Inside Guys joke about their 35-year-old Emmy-winning unscripted NBA analysis show going to ESPN. It’s been hit bad by the cord-cutting phenomenon and the exodus to streaming. Those are only two of many factors affecting NBA ratings.

Shaquille O’Neal was blaming Steph Curry and the 3-point epidemic he started on the low ratings. Most fans even agree with him. But on December 25, the LeBron James vs Steph Curry titanic clash – or the the Lakers vs Warriors game in lay man’s terms – averaged 7.9 million viewers, peaking at 8.4 million at 10:30 p.m., a shocking 511% increase from the 2023 Christmas games. There were some 13-year highs in viewership across all the games.

It’s not certified evidence that it will help Inside the NBA when it moves to ESPN the next season. Neither is it a sign that original TNT show would carry ESPN’s ratings. Because the terms haven’t been ironed out yet. Terms that would guarantee all four Inside Guys will be on the show.

Ernie Johnson and Kenny “The Jet” Smith are quiet as usual. O’Neal is apparently upset that his contract, that expires in July this year, hasn’t been negotiated though he’s intent on continuing with his best friends. Charles Barkley also said it’s not a done deal that he’d continue with the show unless he gets an offer worth his time.

However, with the way the 2024-25 season started with the NBA ratings discourse, it doesn’t feel so bad right now. Viewership is always a rollercoaster. Streaming avenues are reportedly higher. Which makes the 2025-26 season, with a shift to Amazon under the new $76 billion media package and ESPN taking over Inside the NBA, a watershed moment for NBA viewing.