The NBA All-Star Game returns to NBC this weekend after more than two decades, a reunion that both brands hope will attract both old and new fans.
The return of the NBA on NBC has been a blast of nostalgia for fans who remember the many Bob Costas-narrated milestone moments from the 1990s, a period when the league grew enormously.
With the popular “Roundball Rock” theme song, televised player intros, and even Costas back in tow, the packaging has been a hit. The network even secured Michael Jordan for a recorded interview, which it has spliced across weeks of broadcasts to reinforce fans’ connection to those 20th-century glory days.
At the same time, fans’ habits are changing. NBC has aimed to help the NBA reach younger viewers by airing exclusive games each week on Peacock and by experimenting with new viewing experiences. The network has also partnered with younger analysts, including Kenny Beecham and Austin Rivers, on digital content.
This All-Star weekend in Los Angeles offers both sides a chance to reimagine an event that audiences have moved away from in growing numbers for several years. NBC, as part of a new 11-year rights deal, is taking over the All-Star game from TNT Sports. Last season, TNT received poor reviews for its sharply critical commentary and intense focus on the Inside the NBA hosts. The league has adopted a Team USA vs. World format this year, with All-Stars competing in a round-robin tournament of shortened games.
If all goes well, All-Star can be a milestone for the new partnership, and an addition to what NBC is calling its “Legendary February,” which includes a Super Bowl and Winter Olympics as well as the NBA midseason classic.
A team from NBC shadowed NBA officials during the All-Star Game in San Francisco last year and had their own offices set up to get a dry run of the weekend. As conversations progressed, NBC Sports President of Production Sam Flood and his team decided to pursue a Team USA vs. World model.
“We loved the idea of USA vs. World simply because of where this lands on the calendar,” he told Awful Announcing.
“We’re coming in the midst of the Winter Olympics, and you’re going to have all the great hockey teams, rivalries on the ice. You’re going to have the competition between all the world on the snow. We thought the opportunity to connect a little bit of that global game to this game, particularly with how the NBA has evolved over the past 25 years … to be able to highlight that, celebrate that, the league has been wonderful in partnering with us to figure it all out.”
NBA fans will also notice numerous logistical changes under NBC’s rule this weekend. Broadcasts will start earlier for the All-Star as well as All-Star Saturday Night, which NBC has revamped to begin with the Three-Point Contest. The contest will begin before the first commercial break; NBC is dispensing with any table-setting or studio chatter to get right to the action.
“Right out of the box, we’re going to introduce the players, quick tease, quick scene-set, explain the rules, and they’ll be firing balls in the air within 6 minutes of the show starting,” Flood added. “I think that’s really important to just pace of play, pace of energy, and to welcome the audience to the game.”
Commercial breaks and timeouts will be the same length as NBA postseason games to keep the broadcast moving. Last year, a tribute to the Inside hosts and a shooting contest hosted by MrBeast interrupted the All-Star game for long stretches.
On Friday, the Rising Stars Challenge and HBCU Classic will both air exclusively on Peacock, a continuation of NBC Sports’ strategy to incorporate its streaming service for premium content.
Peacock is also home to a new “On the Bench” broadcast once per week that uses color commentators installed on each team’s bench. Flood said NBC Sports officials met with team reps during the NBA coaches’ meeting last summer to solicit feedback and create a setup that teams would buy into.
For regular NBA game nights, Peacock has a Performance View feed with unique data and graphics. The streamer will unveil a new, mobile-first Courtside Live feature during All-Star Weekend, offering enhanced camera feeds and a more immersive experience.
“Streaming obviously brings in a younger audience, and we’ve seen that,” NBA broadcasting head Paul Benedict told Awful Announcing. “What’s interesting to us is just the innovation opportunities that present themselves just in being able to consume through a streamer.”
All three nights of action will directly lead out into Olympics coverage from Italy.
NBC is known for its exceptional video quality and storytelling, both in narration and visuals. All-Star weekend figures to be no different, with Benedict saying the network’s “monumental style” was appealing for the event from the outset.
At Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, NBC will have more than 50 cameras for All-Star Saturday, with several offering super slow-motion replays. A camera in the mousehole of the basket stanchion will provide NBC four-times super-slow-motion replay.
As recently as 2013, NBA All-Star viewership averaged more than 8 million viewers. In two out of the past three years, it has dipped below 5 million. Commissioner Adam Silver has openly panned the league’s players for a lack of effort in the game. Meanwhile, top layers have all but given up on competing in the dunk contest. A surge in attention around WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu’s participation in the three-point shooting contest came and went as an anticipated follow-up featuring Caitlin Clark did not materialize.
Both NBC and the league hope that playing off the game’s globalization and keeping competition more focused will create a better product this year.
“Some of the feedback we got … was 48 minutes of basketball,” Benedict said. “Trying to replicate more of a traditional game experience. And if we mirror that as closely as we can, it’s more likely we’re going to get the best efforts from our competitors on the floor, our star players.”
The goal was to create an experience that was also easier to communicate to fans.
“Simplicity is important,” Flood said. “It’s probably not a great idea if it takes more than one sentence to explain what we’re doing.”
Getting the lead-in from Olympics programming and airing the game on NBC’s broadcast network should help bolster ratings. Viewership for the league has been tracking for a significant increase all season.
But the league will look at overall fan reception to the changes and more granular metrics to determine whether this format is worth keeping.
“As you’ve seen in recent history, we’re always open to change,” Benedict explained. “We’re going to look at viewership closely, we’re going to listen to our fans, just as we always do, to try and understand if this is the right approach.”
Flood noted the Team USA vs. World concept might not make as much sense in non-Olympic years. The league will decide whether to make it a regular tradition.
If all goes well, the momentum at NBC Sports could combine with continued tinkering on the part of the NBA to make All-Star once again a midseason treat for both sides of this treasured reunion.