[Clark] Viewership of Suns games is up 95% year over year. The Suns have shown all of their games this season over-the-air for free in Arizona.
Viewership of Suns games is up 95% year over year. The Suns have shown all of their games this season over-the-air for free in Arizona. https://t.co/i3EW74lPou
— Christian Clark (@cclark_13) February 19, 2024
by Kimber80
32 Comments
Mat Ishbia is for the People
Huh so maybe the “NBA is doomed” narrative is overblown and the decline in tv ratings is related to how hard it is to watch most regular season games? Who would’ve thought?
Take notes, Kroenke.
Rare owner W
I couldn’t imagine why. It’s not like they’ve changed much recently
This is a great result. Portland and other teams are considering adopting Phoenix’s business model if it is successful and it’s looking like it was very successful in its first year. Currently Portland and many other teams are locked out of being able to watch the home team unless we sign up for expensive cable plans.
So is attendance down now like they would like us to believe would happen when games are available on t.v?
Blackouts are the dumbest thing
THis is how you get long term fans that actually spend money on your product.
My kids WANT to watch Magic games because “cool uniforms and mascot” and we cant. So, they are PAcer fans… in Florida. Where we cant buy merch easy. ITs dumb
It’s been so many years since an Arizona owner actually gave a shit. Outside Colangelo, I can’t think of one
Extremely rare suns W
Crazy that when you don’t make fans jump through hula hoops to watch the product, the games are seen by more people.
If the only downside to free Suns is having to hear “Sweet Caroline” and “What the Heck!?!” every couple of commercial breaks it’s a solid trade off
My family has watched a ton of games this season. Which translates to my kids wanting to go to more in person games, wanting more shirts and jerseys, etc.
We’ve spent more on the Suns brand in the past year than in the year they went to the Finals
you guys can see your own team in your own city… lucky
I live in Arizona and am a Thunder fan, and I’ve still seen most of the Suns games thanks to this.
So wait, if you make seeing the team easier for people, more people watch? Crazy.
Take note Tom Gores. Maybe if you make this dogshit team easier to watch you could at least drum up some modicum of interest.
Who would’ve known that letting ppl watch games for free increases fan engagement
The cavs are gonna start doing this and half our sub was complaining about getting an antenna. You just can’t win with some people
I’m so jealous of Phoenix fans bro 😭
Nuggets are in the middle of their best era ever, and fans have been screwed out of games since like 2018.
I’ve been able to watch every game I’ve needed to thankfully but still, I wish more franchises took note of how the Suns show their games.
That’s cool. I have to pay 25 bucks a month to watch the Lakers.
I really want Steve Ballmer to buy KTLA 5 and put all the Clippers games on there. They are already broadcasting on ATSC 3.0 and the quality of the games that are on KTLA are great.
First taste is free…
Imagine getting a free satellite thing to watch local games. That would be amazing
The NBA makes games so ridiculously difficult to watch, this was a huge move and it’s been incredible to be able to watch every game for free after buying a $20 antenna
Actual question: does this mean Phoenix loses money from a TV deal that other teams get selling games to regional sports networks?
That’s great for suns fans. The bulls want us to pay CSN to watch them be bums. I wouldn’t watch if it was free.
I wish more people knew this, but the FCC mandates that local TV stations be broadcast over the air for free in all major markets. In 2009, they mandated all broadcasts to be digital, so the old issues with poor reception, snowy images, etc. are all gone. Image quality is crystal clear, uncompressed HD, and is superior to cable in many cases. To boot, because it’s digital, a lot less bandwidth is required so many main stations also broadcast sub-channels, often showing retro TV shows and movies, some with home shopping type channels
I live in Toronto and have been using an antenna for nearly 20 years to watch TV from Buffalo and Toronto, typically receiving about 35 – 40 channels. If the Leafs and Raptors could be broadcast over the air, I’d be ecstatic.
edit: come to think of if, CBC still shows most Leafs games over the air on Saturday nights, keeping up the Hockey Night in Canada tradition. At least until the deal with Rogers and Bell expires and they are only exclusively available on Rogers and Bell (who are also, not coincidentally, the owners of the Leafs and Raptors.
Apparently people like free.
But how about a free option for out of state fans? Been a suns fan in Socal for 30 years
I´m sure every Suns sponsor hates this very much and will definitely pay much less in the future.
This is a basic corporate tactic. They’ll soon lock their games behind some sort of paywall after giving away their product for free and showing people what they’re missing out on.
It’s the same way streaming services advertised they are commercial free just to introduce commericials a year or two after they launch
Meanwhile as a Nuggets fan I’m forced to check box scores unless the game is on National TV (Nba TV games still get blacked out.