So, without knowing the ratings, do you think it was a success?

I think the OP was referring to publicity the event may have attracted, so hardly a silly question.

I thought it was great, hopefully it takes off and becomes a special event. Vickerman was saying that there American imports were saying the nba guys look forward to playing Christmas Day. Players train on Christmas Day as it is.

It's not silly to all the question broadly.

That doesn’t mean ratings aren’t a big focus commercially for the NBL and kings but if they have gained allot of attention in the public consciousness then they could see plenty of upside and growth opportunity even other benchmarks aren’t quite hit.

To ask*

Exactly. I'm talking about other factors such as publicity gained. If it rated well on TV, then it was obviously a success. The NBL doesn't get covered much, so for them to put a game on Christmas is an opportunity to get the spotlight on them. Did they achieve this?

I dont think it got enough publicity especially after the initial announcement a few months ago. When it was announced, every media outlet reported on it and debated if it was a good idea or not. Was even on The Project as an example. After the game was played last night - I've barely seen or heard anything. Still, I think its worth persisting with for another year and see if this grows.

The media bias towards cricket, Hobart yacht race is terrible. One is a sport for millionaires and the other played in a handful of countries. Cricket is also nowhere near as popular as it was once but still gets saturation media coverage.

It will take a few years to really take off, so what the NBL will be looking for are just encouraging numbers, not that it was this big hit, which it probably wasnt. Being that it was on the Channel 10 main channel it probably got more viewers than the average broadcast.

I agree that all they need is encouraging. Some people will talk about it and then others next year might go oh there's something we can switch on in the background now.

A lot of tv shows become big 3,4 years in - it deserves time to get traction IMO.

If they can resolve stadium and staffing issues, I’d love to see a double header of sorts on Christmas Day.

I actually think in the next "tv deal" the best way to succeed on FTA (main channel especially), is to make life as easy as humanly possible for the casual viewer.

What big bash had on 10 when it was big was 1) it didn’t drag on, 2) it was on each night in summer when people are happy to have something on and maybe not pay absolute attention like they would a tv show.

NBL have started gearing towards playing almost every day during the festive period and that’s smart IMO. If they could have a tv deal where perhaps the they play daily like they have been, but then have the Christmas-proper period live on FTA, that could gain some serious traction.

Something like this:
Christmas Eve (~7pm), plus a twilight second game if on the weekend
Christmas Day ~3pm and ~6.30/7pm
Boxing Day Double
New Years Eve
New Years Day

You’re talking 7-8 games in 7 days to really push it on FTA.

That could actually build momentum towards finals and get some traction for crowds in Jan and get more people actually tuning into Kayo or whatever subscription streamer

I think we will know soon if it was a success. If the numbers gained a noticeable rise, the NBL will be the first to talk about it. But I agree with KET that the NBL needs to fill an empty space. How many things became your favourite show and started out because "there's nothing else on"?

With NBA also having nothing on yesterday (because they do play on Christmas, so have their day off on Christmas Eve), and no BBL, it was basically the only sport on the day. I'd be surprised if the ratings weren't super high by NBL standards.

Unfortunately, the ratings weren't great. 35,000 on ESPN and it didn’t crack top 20 on free to air. As a guide, the 20th ranked show had an audience of 95,000. I don’t think powerbrokers at NBL would be thrilled, but maybe will take 3-5 years for this to get momentum

It wasn't really a good game to watch. Too many soft fouls for my liking. If the NBL could clean up the soft fouls it will go a long way.

Wonder if it was a closer game if more people would of tuned in to watch the game.

Keep in mind that the broadcast on Ten wasn't nationwide and only aired in Sydney and Melbourne.

The media bias towards cricket, Hobart yacht race is terrible. One is a sport for millionaires and the other played in a handful of countries. Cricket is also nowhere near as popular as it was once but still gets saturation media coverage.

Also keep in mind that Ten doesn't rate the same like Seven and Nine.

Sometimes ABC rates better than Ten, hence why AFL couldn’t touch them and CA are also hesitant to the point they might be willing to give up a fair bit of $$$ just to avoid them.

Pulling a figure out of my arse, they might be very happy with 65-70k from Ten and ~90k overall?

"Unfortunately, the ratings weren't great. 35,000 on ESPN and it didn't crack top 20 on free to air. As a guide, the 20th ranked show had an audience of 95,000. I don’t think powerbrokers at NBL would be thrilled, but maybe will take 3-5 years for this to get momentum "

Well depends how you look at it. If the game got, say, 80-90K on ten, 35'000 on ESPN., thats 125'000 people who watched the game. The NBL wouldnt be angry at that.

From the bit from NBL Today article, without saying specifics yet, the indications was that the ratings were fairly good.

Also keep in mind that Ten doesn't rate the same like Seven and Nine.

I would think around 125000 on Christmas Day would be a great starting point.

Could you buy a good range of booze there? If a game also happened earlier itd attract a few 'xmas orphans'.

"Keep in mind that the broadcast on Ten wasn't nationwide and only aired in Sydney and Melbourne."

Watched it in regional Qld on Channel 10 Peach.

They mean Channel 10 main channel (that's the big novelty in this).

It was Peach in other states/territories

"The contest delivered a viewership reach of more than 300,000 people across all platforms on ESPN, Kayo and Channel 10.

"The initial numbers are incredibly positive and give us confidence Christmas games will become an NBL tradition," NBL Executive Director and Owner Larry Kestelman said.

“The game was a huge success on and off the court and provides us with a strong platform to build on. Having an estimated reach of more than 300-thousand people is a fantastic result considering it was the first ever professional sporting event to be played on the day.”"


https://nbl.com.au/news/nbl-christmas-hailed-a-success
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Interesting use of the words "estimated reach" rather than specific, raw viewership data. The NBL has a way of putting lipstick on a pig and overselling the sauce. But I am wondering what it means in actual viewership numbers. Certainly this "sounds" good but hard to know what it all means.

Some of the other claims in the article are promising:

"With more than 300,000 people watching the Hungry Jack's National Basketball League on Christmas, a new tradition has begun in Australia.

The game is being hailed a success with the Sydney Kings’ 101-80 victory over Melbourne United the most viewed game on ESPN so far this season, and the third most watched program on Foxtel on Christmas."

Clearly the league believes this is a promising endeavour, so expect Christmas games to be a thing in the years ahead.

To be fair, isn't free to air non-streaming ratings reflected by a small sample of people with specific boxes? That’s always an estimation.

If 300K is a legitimate estimate than NBL would be ecstatic

Keep in mind that the broadcast on Ten wasn't nationwide and only aired in Sydney and Melbourne

Watched it in regional Qld on Channel 10 Peach.

Not sure what "viewership reach" means exactly, but if 300,000 noticed the game in some form, then it's definitely a good result and I'm sure the other summer leagues will look at that and give it some thought.

Gotta give the NBL some credit sometimes, they do like to try new things and push the boundaries a little.

Looking at what preceded live NBL on Ten Melbourne & Sydney last night:

5:00PM 10 News First
6:00PM Bondi Rescue
6:30PM NBL

It's a shame about the program in the middle, the game should have had the news as its lead-in not some fluff in between wasting half an hour.

Is there potential for a 2.30pm game in NZ, 6pm game in Sydney and a 8pm game in Perth (all AEDT)?

Triple-header on the main network split by News and a fill-in crossover type show to give an OT buffer pre-News?

I think its fair to say the game was a success. Wouldnt surprise me if the league tried to get all teams involved. There's a huge hole they can fill there. Just a shame the game itself was apparently shit.

Great result.
The game itself wasn't shit, you just never thought that United could win it.

I don't think all the teams can get involved, maybe a rotation basis. Sports not big enough to justify televising back to back games, plus can't see too many turning up against lesser unpopular teams especially on Christmas day.
This year's NBA Christmas games seemed unlike most years. Lakers/Celtics, rematch of finalists, grudge games like Shaq vs Kobe were ratings winners. NBL might go down route of Melbourne (either teams) vs Sydney, or even United vs Phoenix (at least both teams will be home).

Capacity was reduced because Christmas Day is a restricted trading day. Which for Qudos Bank Arena would place restrictions on the amount of staff they can employ to work during the restricted hours - this would have been part of their application to open and run their business during the restricted hours.

This probably also explains why the game was played in Sydney, because there isn't an conditionally exemption process in Victoria.

"If 300K is a legitimate estimate than NBL would be ecstatic."

It would be good to know what their "reach" is for other games across multiple platforms. Having 300K watch the NBL is a good thing, but it's hard to know whether it's a great result without having a comparison.

It's also hard to know whether 10 would repeat it on their main channel without seeing the average audience figures.

BigD, the game was played in Sydney because Sydney are the ones that wanted the game. It wasn't the NBL wanting a game on xmas day and then seeing which state could play. I'm sure if United wanted to, they would have.

I get this could me attached for various reasons, but we know clubs have a tendency to give away tickets, is Christmas Day a game where you could, in the spirit of "giving", “gift” ~1-2k tickets to kids and families particularly ones that are less fortunate?

I understand with that comes risk of criticism as devaluing tickets people buy or taking revenue potential revenue away and making it even more of a loss game or loss-leader.

But I imagine if they can find a way to target the right people, it could become a big goodwill boost delivering a Christmas present in a form of the experience and fun of the game. With the added benefit of a larger crowd and better atmosphere.

Market it properly and give to the right people and it can give everyone good feels rather than cynical “you're giving away tickets that I pay a lot for”.

Could be attacked*

Reports are out suggesting the NBL are looking at a double header for next Christmas Day.

And CA are now looking into it too. Typical!