Christmas Day is hugely important to the NBA and its broadcasters, as it is one of its main showcases on national television, with a marathon trying to attract American viewers.
But this year, with the many contaminations and quarantines, the posters have often lost their interest and the audiences of the five posters of December 25 (New York – Atlanta, Milwaukee – Boston, Phoenix – Golden State, LA Lakers – Brooklyn and Utah – Dallas) are not flamboyant.
The three meetings broadcast on ABC thus flirted with five million viewers, with 5.2 million for Warriors – Suns, 4.9 million for Bucks – Celtics and 4.8 million for Lakers – Nets.
For the first two games, it is equivalent or a little more than the games of last year, broadcast at the same times. On the other hand, the meeting between Los Angeles and Brooklyn did much less well than that which took place at the same time last year, since the match between the Lakers and the Mavs had drawn 7.1 million people.
Above all, it is the form of the NFL, the American football league, that can cause concern on the side of the NBA.
Because if the sports audiences decrease in a global way, the league of Roger Goodell is maintained, on the contrary. For Christmas, the game between the Green Bay Packers and the Cleveland Browns drew nearly 29 million Americans to their small screens, becoming the most watched sporting event at Christmas for at least twenty years!
