For the pro teams looking at life beyond bankrupt regional cable network Bally Sports, moving to free over-the-air broadcast television is a tradeoff of a sure regional-sports-network paycheck vs. expanded reach.
The New Orleans Pelicans, which is one of three NBA franchises contracted with Bally Sports to carve out an arrangement to show 10 games on local broadcast TV this season, experienced the upside of that equation on Friday night.
With the Pels facing the defending champion Denver Nuggets on Gray Television's WVUE-TV (channel 8), simulcast on Bounce TV (channel 8.2), the telecast averaged a 7.4 rating and 50,000 local viewers, according to Gray, citing Nielsen data. (Editor's note: Gray's WVUE originally spoke to local New Orleans paper the Times-Picayune about this ratings story.)
That's more than three times the audience of the biggest Bally Sports viewership, which tops out at about a 2.0 rating. Comparing apples to oranges, it also usurped the local performance on ABC last June of the NBA Finals, which averaged a 7.24 rating locally in the Big Easy market.
Kicking the tires on that latter comparison, offered up by Gray, a rep for the station group conceded with us that it's strange to compare the local Pelicans broadcast to a national feed of the Finals, which didn't feature the Pels last June.
"But it would be huge news if a Washington Commanders game ever had more viewers than the Super Bowl in the DC market," the rep responded.
Fine.
The NBA has carved out an arrangement with Sinclair Broadcast Group bankrupt subsidiary, Diamond Sports Group, which manages the Bally channels, to reduce rights fees for its Bally Sports teams this ongoing season. But once next season starts, the teams are free from Bally Sports and can pursue any local TV rights arrangement they wish.
A few NBA teams, including the Pels, the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Atlanta Hawks, are exercising a clause that lets them also show up to 10 of their games this season in the local broadcast market.
