Did anyone lose the NBA vs. NFL numbers scramble on Christmas Day? Unless you count the people who do not have the financial wherewithal to subscribe to Neflix (remember that all the NBA games were not on what used to be known as a “cable” network…ESPN…they were on a good old fashioned broadcast channel, ABC) or those who had no interest in sports and wanted to focus on the actual holiday with friends and family, the answer is no one lost.
Everyone really won.
The NFL vs NBA social chatter drove relevance to the whole lineup, even if you didn’t have a stake in the game. The NBA’s alternative broadcast for game one…Knicks vs. Spurs…was a fun way to start things off. Netflix delivered a clean , relatively glitch free basic football broadcast twice, with the regular names and even a little Beyonce mixed in. We got to see Wemby arrive even more, Curry and LeBron go at it, Bridges make a little history on the floor(Madison Square Garden) that started this NBA on Christmas scenario back in the day. We got to learn about more shows coming up on Netflix we want to watch, we learned how to scroll from a streaming service to a broadcast network and back within seconds, and fans got to watch the two largest professional sports business do their thing with their stars for over 12 hours.
Both leagues and their broadcast partners spun the apples to apples numbers as you would expect…Netflix claimed viewers in more countries (over 200) then the United Nations actually recognizes, and the NBA because it went ABC only, saw a large ratings bump in a year where some a fretting about the demise of pro hoops quality. Nah, let’s just adjust.
The NBA is fine. Its five games on Christmas Day averaged 5.25 million viewers, an 84% jump from 2023. The noon game was up 98%, the 8 p.m. game was up 499%, and the 10:30 p.m. game was up 161%. This was the NBA’s most-watched Christmas Day in five years, and viewership is now essentially flat year over year despite everyone acting like the NBA was going out of business.
Nielsen says Netflix’s NFL games reached 65 million total viewers in the United States, and cherry picking live sporting events helps them with customer acquisition and retention and even commercials!
We got to learn more about the stories of both leagues and those on and off the court and field, which is what these elite days should be all about, no matter where they are aired. After all, fans tuned in to watch the athletes regardless of where they were being showcased. We wanted to talk and view and learn through the devices we now have on a day where sharing should be priority one.
For the leagues, any league, or anyone with quality live content, it again opened the window into the future, one where the choices will be more plentiful and the rights fees for the best of the best will continue to rise. More players for the players after all. Does the NBA own the day any less now than when it was a few years ago? Maybe. But Christmas viewing proved there is room for both, even more so on a global scale. Heck, it used to be that New Year’s Day was all college bowl games, then along came the NHL Winter Classic and things moved and adapted and we all survived. Choices are important, and traditions are what we spend with those around us, not necessarily what we watch on a piece of glass.
It’s not such a bad thing for anyone, as long as you can afford the where.
