As I sat by and watched the waning hours of twilight pass while James Harden dropped his 5th triple double (29 PTS, 15 REB, 13 AST) in a double overtime regular season thriller against the Super Dubs, I received an alert from my NFL Mobile app:

(11:04 pm)WATCH NOW: Vikings are trailing the Cowboys 14-9 with 04:27 left in the 4th. Read at 2:10am.

I then sat and wondered, “How could anyone watch that game, when this was an INSTANT CLASSIC!!” It brought me to the previous stance of, the NFL was losing viewers. So the logical response would be that the NBA(second largest market for sports) should garner more viewers with the declining ratings. Yeah, I was wrong.

The NFL has cornered a market by being well, the only market. It’s a fine model of Supply and Demand, being there’s only 20 games of the NFL in a year different than the NBA/NHL’s 82 and MLB’s 162. Out of the 12 regular season games so far on national TV Primetime Game (Monday, Thursday, Sunday, London Games), Sports Media Watch has the NFL views between:

• Monday: 10.5-13 million
• Thursday: 5.1-14.5million
• Sunday: 16-23 million
• London Games: 3.7-8.7 million

The lowest numbers are a result of the Presidential Election (Week 3 MNF, Week 5 SNF) and terrible match-ups:

• Monday Night Football: ATL/NO, TB/CAR
• Thursday Night Football: BAL/CLE, ATL/TB, JAX/TEN,  MIA/CIN
• London Games: All of them

Even though the numbers are low for those games, they still garner more attention than any of the Big Four sports in America. The Warriors/Celtics game that was on ESPN, only drew 2.0m viewers. That beats 2014’s Cavs/Wizards 1.9m views. Last weeks Bulls/Heat game on TNT only drew 1.6m. The only NBA game to reach NFL numbers in the tens, was the NBA Finals matchup between the Cavs and Warriors at an 11.1m average viewer.

The number differential is astonishing, but it may have to do with the deals that the NFL has made for their TV rights. Cited from a foxbusiness.com article, the NFL brought in $7.3 billion in national revenue last year, an exclusive  $12 billion contract with Direct TV on the way, with $450m combined NBC and CBS deal to keep Thursday Night Football on the air.

The NBA itself is on the come-up. In 2014, the NBA struck a nine-year media rights deal worth $24 billion dollars. That influx of money should help the NBA try to catch up to the NFL in a viewership standpoint, as well as quality production by their partners. It also helped players like Timofey Mozgov make bank for doing nothing but grabbing rebounds and missing lay-ups, and Mike Conley to making $30 million per year being in the bottom of top 10 point guards in the league. Honestly, it’s their money they can do whatever they want with it.

With all of that money and exposure (82 games vs. 16 games), the NBA should grab more followers and maintain a consistent audience. Maybe bring back NBA Showtime on NBC? Sunday Showcase every Sunday? Tuesday, Wednesday Thursday? I don’t know, I should stop making sense.

Statistical tangent coming full circle.  Through vast research on a great off day of responsibilities, my question became answered:

The NFL was not losing viewers in an entirety, they were just being distracted. There’s variables in life that matter more than an NFL team losing a few million viewers at a certain time. People have lives to live, other shows to watch, and your match-ups are just terrible. I understand that they want everyone to reach the ‘Grand Stage’ of primetime television, but some teams are not all there yet. And sending the Jaguars to London on a yearly basis is not a great precedent to set with mediocre football. The NBA doesn’t send the 76ers and Pelicans to China in hopes to get followers. However, they did showcase the T’Wolves and 76ers on primetime to show the future of the NBA, early in the season.

The lack of viewers just have to do with personal preferences. I chose to watch the Warriors and Rockets last night, not just for total fandom and fantasy purposes, but I had zero interest in the Cowboys and Vikings. However, if it were the Cardinals or Eagles playing….then maybe you got yourself a viewer.

Cover image courtesy of theplayoffs.com.br