NBA - Main

If we only had a way to get the fans the games.

GIT GUD

I pay you YT TV, still can't watch my local team without an additional $20 month to Bally.

It's not that all people have cut cable entirely, but not having your exclusive provider on streaming TV services is insane

NFL preseason games getting more viewers than NBA Finals is fucking embarassing

The “wokeness” also turned off some fans.

It’s absolutely affected MLB and NHL in the same ways, except those leagues have done better to counter it. They’re more attendance driven AND they haven’t allowed people to feel like the regular season doesn’t matter.

ive just been pirating everything that seems interesting to me, until there is a compelling enough way to legally watch things that makes it worth like $10 or so, im going to keep doing that (this also applies for movie and tv in general)

MF the decline of the product has impacted the NBA, fuck blaming cable lmfao

This is going to age me but as a kid I watched all of my teams games on the local public broadcast using an antenna. My parents wouldn't pay for cable. That is how I became a fan of my home team and basketball. Without free access, the NBA would have been as alien as water polo. The decision to put all the content on cable is going to cost the NBA fans who would grow up and buy tickets etc. This started in the 90s with content migrating behind paywalls but now there is so much good content that doesn't require cable that we aren't just going to pay for cable, especially since the product is not as entertaining.

The free antenna years are never coming back, but it's not worth subscribing to cable just for live sports and news. The cable providers have been ripping people off for years and playing all kinds of games with billing. The NBA needs to get on a lower cost streaming service or lose fans.

I live in Saint Louis and it’s hard to justify purchasing league pass when two teams, the Pacers and Grizzlies, are blacked out despite living in a city without a team. For $100 or $149, no game should be blacked out.

Yeah the answer is staring him in the face. No local blackouts.

I’m in this weird spot where I pay for NBA TV, get TNT games through Max, but can’t watch ESPN. Makes no sense to get some kind of cable package just for that subset of games. Last night I had to find a stream of the Kings/Warriors game despite spending a lot on the NBA already.

They act like there isn’t an easy solution to this…

Then make a better option, you have the means. League Pass sucks.

Can they partner up with netflix for more worldwide audience?

The biggest problem the NBA faces is that young people aren't fans of teams, they're fans of Curry, LeBron, Giannis, etc.

Jazz+. has been awesome!!!

Paid services can’t compare to the high seas. NBA needs to eventually consider offering thier own free streaming services. The number of boomers subbed to cable is getting smaller every year. Free games and give us ads between breaks just like cable.

This guys been a bad commissioner. Bad tv deals, bad streaming apps, no discipline with player violence etc. do these guys just have the job until death?

And watch the games in more unconventional way

Gonna keep resorting to piracy until I can pay one single provider an acceptable monthly fee to watch all of my local games with no blackouts or restrictions.

League pass being literally the worst piece of software I’ve ever used has probably disproportionately affected the NBA

The issue here is that the NBA chased the quick buck in only putting their games on cable. The NFL has mandated that their games always be on local broadcast TV even if it costs them some money in the short term. They know it helps the fan base grow. People have to watch the product to make it valuable. It's hard for them to care if they can't watch. NBA should've made a certain percentage of games air on local stations instead of hiding them on a 2nd tier cable package. The opportunity cost in fanbase growth may never recover.

I‘m in Europe and would consider paying a reduced price for league pass, but there is no app for my xbox, no app for my TV and trying to watch anything from the NBA website on my aging laptop gives me some DRM error as apparently my Laptop doesn‘t have a DRM chip(whatever that is). All other streaming services are available on xbox and my TV and work well on my laptop, btw.

Now even if league pass would work here, it costs the same as in the USA, but I can never watch live games, because I sleep at night. And they don‘t have commentary in my language…no way I pay the full price in that case even if it would work.

I just sail the high seas. With all owner being billionaires and all players being multi millionaires I don‘t even have the slightest bad conscience about it.

NBA is just incompetent and anti-consumer with their league pass, imo.

Just let Apple do it, like the MLS does, instead of trying to do it yourself. Or find another partner, like being a channel in Amazon Prime or whatever.

Too bad League Pass is dogshit

Having a DTC option for the RSN fans is great for the super fan, but to get casual fans to watch, and create new fans, who don't have bundle subscription, requires going to where these people are already consuming video, like having a national games on Amazon Prime, Netflix, and for free on YouTube.

Oh pls. Suck my balls Adam.

Personally, Im here for the rise of YouTube ballers and the decline of the nba.

Then have a student subscription like all the major platfotms like spotify and amazon etc. Greedy nba. Other companies have adapted, make it affordable to your young audiences

Bally sports subscription is a scam. Ain’t doing that shit.

How many of those 65 million homes are consuming sports in a traditional way because the leagues collectively suck at providing a direct-to-consumer experience?

Everybody I know who has cable has it for sports

Sports tele is monopoly af

Fuck ballys

I bought league pass again this year. Turns out something has changed and Alaska is “local” for the blazers now so it’s blacked out. YouTube tv and league pass and I still can’t watch blazers games. Almost 2000 mile drive to Portland from here and they won’t let me watch my team. That is the problem.

"Cable has declined. And yet we still sign outdated contracts with providers so that no streaming service has all NBA games, even though every cable provider has all NBA games. We shoot ourselves in the foot and look to blame others"

What Silver should have said.

If I could just pay like 5 bucks to watch one game, like renting a movie on Amazon, I would def prefer that. This whole subscriptions thing is getting to be a pain in the ass

As a Canadian, all Raptors games are nationally blacked out, and you have to pay TWO streaming providers to catch all the games ... It's like $50 a month ... From everyone in Canada, fuck you for cutting that deal. I'll stream before you ever get a dime outta me

Lol not as many company tvs with espn on in the background these days

Sorry Adam - were all watching via nba bite. Catch up..

The 10 min highlights are more then enough for me

Apple wants an all-or-nothing deal for sports — worldwide distribution, no blackouts, standardized pricing for everyone, the whole shabang. That’s why they currently have MLS, and why they do not have NFL Sunday Ticket. If the NBA is going to continue being greedy, cutting partial deals with multiple parties and countries for just a slice then they’re going to continue losing viewers. Only the NFL is powerful enough to get fans to seek out games wherever they are.

Your refusal to consider options other than cable have impacted the NBA.

Watching Knicks games legally was basically impossible without a cable subscription. I think only Fubo and DIRECTV Now have MSG. Never tried the latter because I couldn’t sign up without them sending me a streaming box, and Fubo doesn’t have espn or tnt, I forget which one. (Unless they’ve added it within the last year) So then you have to sign up for Sling which is an extra $35, so with Fubo, you’re paying nearly $120 a month.

But now you can just pay $30 a month to watch Knicks games on an app.

I chose free options. Less of a headache. Figure out how to let people watch basketball