During the 2023-24 basketball season, television data and analytics firm EDO found that the league produced more than 56 billion impressions for its advertisers across more than 29,000 airings. That made the full NBA season four times more impactful for advertisers than the average primetime program.
As the NBA regular season wore on, viewers were 12% more likely to engage with an ad during an NBA game than during the average primetime broadcast—up 15% from a season before. Once the playoffs began, viewers were 39% more likely to interact with an ad during game time than in primetime. That put the NBA second only to the National Football League in effectiveness for advertisers.
With 78% of NBA advertisers on linear networks also advertising on the league’s streaming broadcasts, SponsorUnited sees more opportunity for that hesitant 22% to join streaming channels.
“Our new global media agreements with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon will maximize the reach and accessibility of NBA games for fans in the United States and around the world,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver in the statement announcing the new media deals. “These partners will distribute our content across a wide range of platforms and help transform the fan experience over the next decade.”
