New NBA commissioner Adam Silver is quickly becoming known for thinking outside the box and not being beholden to the status quo of his predecessor. Whether it has to deal with gambling, advertisements on uniforms, or even his punishment of Donald Sterling, Silver has shown an ability to break from NBA tradition and conventional wisdom.
It’s flown under the radar, but in the wake of the NBA’s negotiating new broadcast contracts with ESPN and Turner, Silver’s comments about unique NBA timeslots are certainly noteworthy. Silver suggested at the Bloomsberg Sports Business Summet that the league is considering tipping select games on Saturday mornings.
The reason why, via Pro Basketball Talk, might surprise you. The morning tip times would be done with the intent of reaching primetime audiences in China and around the world.
“I think the biggest challenge (to growing the game internationally) is the time zone differences. I mean, for example, in China, roughly 12 hours different from the East Coast. So prime time games are on early in the morning, so you have to figure out whether we need to create new products, condensed games that are shown later, whether it becomes a business of highlights, whether it’s equivalent of tweets and other forms of social media.
“I think that’s sort of — part of the biggest challenge. I mean, ultimately, whether we should consider time-shifting some of our games. Once the audience becomes big enough, maybe it’s not so crazy to ask a team once every two months to play a Saturday morning game….
“Yes, maybe when the audience gets big enough China and you’re reaching 100 million people in China to say so maybe once in a while a team will play at 10:00 on Saturday morning.”
It’s absolutely crazy… but it just might be crazy enough to work.
Leagues have been expanding their brands internationally at an acceleterated rate in recent years and it’s no secret how big basketball is in China. However, instead of taking regular season games there, the NBA could move a few games to 10 AM ET to reach millions more fans across the globe. If one “Brunch at MSG” game means an audience of 100 million, then it’ll be worth the sacrifice of everyone involved to get up early.
Moreover, Silver could take a page out of the highly successful page of the EPL. Were the NBA to tip off a game at 10 AM ET, they would face little to no competition in that timeslot. A morning game might even have a special-event feel that could shake up the regular season and bring some added interest to an otherwise forgettable game.
The more creative Adam Silver can be to grow the game on television, here and abroad, the better placed the NBA will be for the long haul. The idea could succeed or fail, but the fact that Silver is coming up with these ideas should be what’s really encouraging for NBA fans.
