NBA embraces content creators, tries to protect live sports rights

The future of the NBA’s media strategy was taking shape during this year’s All-Star weekend.

The show has always been about showcasing the league’s best players. But this year’s event was as much about the league’s partnership with creators as it was about the talent on the field.

More than 200 global creators attended the events from Thursday to Sunday. facilitated by league. This showed that the NBA seemed more than happy to partner with content creators rather than limit their access to games to wall off the value of live rights, from which the league earns most of its money. The NBA’s 11-year, $77 billion new media rights deal kicks off this season with agreements with Comcast’s NBCUniversal, Disney and Amazon.

The NBA believes its future will make room for both a growing creative audience and the traditional game viewing experience that fuels revenue growth.

“The NBA has a long history of collaborating with talented creators who share our commitment to bringing the excitement of our games and events to fans around the world,” said Bob Carney, NBA Senior Vice President of Social and Digital Content. he said in a statement. “We are excited to join forces with more creators than ever before on NBA All-Star, providing them with opportunities to be active participants in virtually every event and deliver engaging content that showcases this important NBA event to diverse audiences.”

A few months ago, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver called the NBA “a sport based on highlights” and directed fans to Instagram, TikTok, X and YouTube for league content. Silver decided there was value in partnering with creators to get Gen Z and Gen Alpha interested in the NBA; because these age groups are moving away from watching all the matches like their parents do.

Considering the vast majority of the league’s revenue comes from the value of live games, embracing social media is a risky play for the Silver. The NBA’s big media deal caused team valuations to rise. The average value of an NBA franchise is now $5.52 billion, or 18% more than a year ago.

Silver may have little choice, though. Unlike the NFL, NBA regular season games do not have huge audiences. This season, NBA regular season games averaged 2 million viewers on ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime Video. According to Nielsen data. This is compared to the average TV viewer 18.7 million For the most recent regular season NFL game.

A. 2023 survey A study from marketing firm InMobi found that 61% of Gen Z respondents, or those ages 18 to 24 at the time of the survey, cited user-generated content as their favorite form of media.

Bridging the gap between content creation and live streaming rights could be inventing a new alternative streaming format where kids can watch games with their favorite YouTubers. 37% of Gen Z respondents to a Harris Poll survey conducted earlier this year said they would watch creator-led syndicated streaming in a regular season game in professional sports. Seventy percent said they would likely watch their favorite creator’s stream if that person was co-streaming a sporting event.

“As time went on, I could see there being 30 different ways to watch the Super Bowl or something like that in a few years,” Jesse Riedel, a sports content creator known as Jesser on YouTube, said in an interview. “I think in the future there will be many versions of a release rather than a single release.”

Riedel has more than 37 million YouTube subscribers. He co-founded a media and lifestyle company called Bucketsquad, which had “robust” tens of millions of dollars in annual revenue, according to Zach Miller, the company’s president.

Riedel noted that the NBA is better suited to content creation than the NFL because fans tend to focus less on the teams and more on the players. Riedel features many star actors in his videos, which helps him attract a large audience.

“I think the NFL audience that we have is more fighting for their team, but I think the NBA in particular is more player-oriented,” Riedel said.

The rise of NBA content production isn’t the only factor changing the league’s media future. Silver also talked this weekend about how artificial intelligence will change the NBA viewing experience.

“One of the areas that I think is particularly worth touching on is the impact on the fan experience. One of the things we’re already starting to see is how we can go beyond personalizing our television broadcasts to almost hyper-personalizing them,” Silver said. All-Star weekend press conference. “Many of you have probably already tried this, but in essence, you’ll be able to hear the game in any dialect, any language, hear a harsh X’s and O’s commentary, maybe a funnier one if that’s what you’re into, or a novice explaining each foul and the rules as he goes along.”

There is an inherent risk in over-personalizing the game. Sports is one of the last collective experiences in American society, and certainly in television. This has led to the rapid growth of media rights and the high cost of associated advertising.

Perhaps having multiple feeds and AI experiences will increase interest, and targeted ad rates will continue to increase as companies seize the opportunity to insert highly specific ads into personalized content.

But splitting streams into many different parts could also defeat the main reason why live rights are so valuable, as a way to target millions of people at once.