The ratings in the U.S. for the 2023 NBA and NFL Christmas Day games have returned, and they skewed heavily to football for the second year in a row.
While it isn't a surprise for the NFL to lap the NBA in terms of viewership, the wide gap has alarmed plenty of news outlets and experts because it happened on Christmas. The holiday had previously been viewed as a showcase for the NBA, while Thanksgiving had been exclusive to the NFL.
Christmas Day ratings:
— Front Office Sports (@FOS) December 28, 2023
🏀 Knicks-Bucks: 2.5M
🏀 Warriors-Nuggets, 4.1M
🏀 Lakers-Celtics, 5M
🏀 Heat-Sixers, 1.2M
🏀 Mavs-Suns, 1.3M
🏈 Raiders-Chiefs, 29.2M
🏈 Giants-Eagles, 29M
🏈 Ravens-49ers, 27.2M
(h/t @sportsrapport) pic.twitter.com/VYNeiZwGTP
But the NFL has successfully stolen Christmas over the last two years, and it widened its gap this year with NBA games declining in viewership versus last year by as much as 73% versus similar windows. Meanwhile, the three NFL games each average over 27 million viewers, at least two million more than the most viewers the 2022 Christmas NFL games received.
The decline in viewership for the NBA is also concerning given the league's looming next media rights deal. Its current deal expires after the 2024-25 season, so every data point for viewership could tip the scale for the NBA.
The dip comes also just weeks after the NBA what many media members believed to be a very successful inaugural In-Season Tournament, which many also believe is a piece of the pie it could be selling to a broadcaster for its next media rights deal.
However, there are a few silver-linings for the NBA despite this discouraging news on Christmas.
First, the NFL's initial foray into Christmas day games may not be a regular thing.
Hans Schroeder, executive vice president of media distribution for the NFL, told the Wall Street Journal last week that the league does not plan to air games on Christmas if the holiday lands on a Tuesday or Wednesday.
Most NFL games tend to be played on Sundays, with a few primetime games on Mondays and Thursdays, and now the occasional Saturday showcase games. These days of the week have allowed for enough rest for the brutal schedule for players, so scheduling games on Tuesday or Wednesday could drastically alter the schedule.
With Christmas landing on Sunday last year and Monday this year, the NFL had its opportunity to test Christmas games. Clearly it's been successful — which is why some believe that it's unlikely the NFL will stick to its word. But it's still worth noting in the meantime.
The other point is that the NBA, while it will always be competing with the NFL in terms of ad dollars, has parts of the market it can still take that the NFL will not be looking at.
The Athletic senior writer Sam Vecenie made this type of argument on X (formerly Twitter).
"The NBA is pretty clearly strongly positioned vs. others in the 'inventory sports' category, which means they're going to be just fine with this upcoming TV deal in terms of projections and hopes. In the USA, they're not going to beat the NFL. That's the reality. But the ability to offer real value over replacement level vs. NHL, early season MLB, scripted programming here is what they need to do, and that's why they're positioned fine. And then they continue to have real international market cap that they can seize upon," Vecenie wrote.
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