On the most comparable night this year – Wednesday, Nov. 2, when the Celtics were scheduled to play the Cleveland Cavaliers – SportsNet drew only 9,400 viewers.
Audience shifts can be even more dramatic for games late in the season. For the Celtics-New York Knicks playoff game on April 17, SportsNet drew 298,000 viewers, according to the Nielsen numbers.
“Any time your property has the play-by-play games, and you suddenly don’t have them, that is clearly a problem,’’ said Stephen Greyser, a Harvard Business School professor who specializes in sports brand marketing. “It’s a tune-in problem. The absence of the Celtics for live games is an impediment.’’
Stations are playing a high-stakes waiting game as the league and the players union fight over how to split billions in revenue. This early, there has not been much economic damage, since the high ratings and advertising dollars generated by NBA games tend to build through the season and peak during the playoffs, analysts said.
But if talks fail to produce an agreement, the entire season will be threatened, and stations could lose the lucrative ad revenue that comes with extra viewers who tune into live NBA broadcasts.
For the moment, broadcasters are doing their best to replace the canceled games. SportsNet is running old Celtics contests with commentary from NBA personalities like Danny Ainge, the Celtics president of basketball operations, and Celtics coach Doc Rivers.
“Despite the loss of Celtics games, which is admittedly painful, we are prepared to more than weather the storm,’’ said SportsNet general manager Bill Bridgen, adding that the channel has so far not lost any advertisers during the lockout.
But replacement programming is a poor substitute for the actual Celtics, who tend to dominate the local ratings on radio and television. “It’s not something that will be a complete solution for us economically,’’ said SportsNet’s Bridgen.
Article source: http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-11/ae/30387801_1_celtics-games-celtics-president-celtics-coach-doc-rivers
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