CLEVELAND, Ohio — The NBA is betting big on streaming platforms, but its timing couldn’t be worse.
As the league prepares to make history with its first-ever Peacock-exclusive broadcast featuring the Cavs against the Detroit Pistons on October 27th, serious questions are emerging about whether the strategy will connect with fans or drive them away.
The blunt assessment from cleveland.com columnist Jimmy Watkins on the Wine and Gold Talk podcast cuts right to the heart of the issue: “What they say when your league is struggling to garner ratings make the games harder to find. That’s what they say.”
This sardonic observation highlights the paradoxical nature of the NBA’s current strategy.
At a time when television ratings have been declining, the league is moving games to platforms that require additional subscriptions, making content less accessible to casual fans who might not be motivated enough to follow.
The timing of this streaming pivot is particularly problematic.
As Chris Fedor of cleveland.com pointed out, “For the NBA, if you had your choice, this is not the right time to get into streaming. It’s because it’s toward the tail end of LeBron, it’s towards the tail end of Steph, it’s toward the tail end of [Kevin Durant]. And you don’t yet — not yet — you don’t have that new established star.”
This transition period — with the league’s most recognizable American stars fading but their successors not yet fully established — creates a dangerous gap in star power that could impact viewership.
Watkins emphasized this challenge: “This is why the face of the league conversation that all the players seem to not like. This is why it matters. This is why it matters to have a bankable star, ideally a few that you know that people will follow and watch on a given Wednesday night, the regular season.”
The NBA’s current landscape makes this challenge even more acute.
Many of the league’s emerging superstars are international players who, despite their tremendous talent, may not resonate with American audiences in the same way. Meanwhile, the NBA regular season, with its 82-game schedule, already struggles to create must-see moments compared to other sports.
As Fedor explained: “The NBA is looking for that kind of guy to drive the product in a different kind of way. And it doesn’t have that. And it also has a relatively meaningless regular season compared to, let’s say the NFL. Because the NFL, there’s only so many games and every single game basically matters for playoff positioning and stuff like that.”
This combination — games behind paywalls, aging superstars, and a long regular season — creates a perfect storm that could further erode viewership.
The contrast with the NFL, which has created an event-driven model where each game feels significant, is stark.
Making matters worse, the NBA has diluted its own regular season product through messaging that prioritizes championships and playoff success above all else.
“There are a lot of teams around the NBA guys that have already said, hey, the regular season, not that it’s meaningless, but it doesn’t mean as much for us. So they’ve in a way kind of watered down their own regular season product with all this commentary,” Fedor noted.
For the Cavaliers, being the first team featured in a Peacock-exclusive broadcast brings both opportunity and risk.
While it provides another national platform for the team’s young stars, the limited audience may minimize the exposure benefits.
The fundamental question remains: In an era of streaming fragmentation, can the NBA convince fans to follow their favorite teams across multiple platforms, especially as its biggest stars fade from the scene? The league’s future may depend on finding the right answer.
Here’s the podcast for this week:
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