We knew LeBron James’ move to Los Angeles this summer was going to have all sorts of ripple effects, the likes of which we may not fully understand for years to come. For instance, it tipped the already lopsided balance of power between the East and West more heavily in favor of the West.
But the larger implications of his relocation across the country go beyond the court. The Lakers will enjoy a lot more national TV exposure this season as a result, and with that comes much later tip-off times than when he was in Cleveland. West Coast games typically start around 10 or 10:30 ET, which has drawn some concern that fans may not stick around to watch LeBron and company.
ESPN, however, doesn’t seem the least bit concerned. They’re banking on the notion that LeBron’s star power will supersede the later start times, even pointing to social media as a better barometer for whether people are watching than the more traditional rating system.
“To me, it’s not a big concern,” said ESPN’s vice president for programming and scheduling, Burke Magnus. “Everybody understands how time zones work and the sports fan knows where and when to find the Lakers. There are plenty of good stories in the East which will lead into the second half of the doubleheader.”
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“The league is very, very progressive in the way they build their TV schedule both for us and for Turner to make sure the highest profile games are in the best possible places,” Magnus said.
NBA data suggests that the league’s young fan base is willing to stay up. “The best way to talk about it is to look at Twitter,” NBA executive vice president for digital media Melissa Brenner says. “Over the course of an 8:30 game and a 10:30 game, we see an almost identical volume of tweets. There’s no material difference.”
With West Coast games sometimes ending at nearly 1 a.m. ET, it seems inevitable that the league may have to rethink this at some point in the future, but that time is apparently not now.
(Via SI.com)
