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Speaker 1: Commission. There's a lot to talk about viewership, whether it's

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Speaker 1: up or down. I'd like to hear your point of

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Speaker 1: view of that. And you think we'll ever get consistently

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Speaker 1: the same views like we got on Christmas Day.

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Speaker 2: Well, first of all, we're about even with last year

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Speaker 2: right now in terms of our ratings. We were down

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Speaker 2: initially in the season, we were up against the World Series.

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Speaker 2: Obviously there was a national election going on which was

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Speaker 2: driving a lot of viewership towards politics. But now after

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Speaker 2: we had a huge Christmas Day, as I said, we're

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Speaker 2: up on ESPN and ABC. We're down a little bit

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Speaker 2: on our other networks, but roughly even for the season,

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Speaker 2: and that's roughly even with last season. And last season

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Speaker 2: was our highest regular season viewership in four years, So

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Speaker 2: we're doing fine from a viewership standpoint. I mean, I

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Speaker 2: hear the narrative and I think it's nothing new. You've

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Speaker 2: been around the league for a long time, Shack. You know,

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Speaker 2: you know it's a bit of a sport to pick

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Speaker 2: on the league on occasion. I get it. You know,

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Speaker 2: we got to respond to the critics as well. But

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Speaker 2: I think the fact is, you know, part of the

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Speaker 2: reason for the new change in the new television deals

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Speaker 2: is that one of the advantages of the NBA is

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Speaker 2: that we have a very young audience and audience that

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Speaker 2: advertisers like, an audience that influencers like, but they're not

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Speaker 2: watching as much traditional television that they historically did. I mean,

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Speaker 2: it's interesting, you're younger than I am. Sheck, you're still

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Speaker 2: I'm now in that official older demographic in that something

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Speaker 2: like seventy percent of primetime viewership is comprised of people

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Speaker 2: fifty five and older. You've got a few years Togo,

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Speaker 2: Adam's got a longer time to go. But young people,

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Speaker 2: they're watching an enormous amount of screen time, but not

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Speaker 2: traditional television. Right, it's social media, you know, it's social media.

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Speaker 2: Broadly describe videos on social media, certainly streaming commissions, your views.

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Speaker 3: On YouTube, like cutups of games get like ten million

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Speaker 3: by the next morning. This younger generation is watching the

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Speaker 3: ten minute version at a crazy amount, Like those numbers

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Speaker 3: are staggering.

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Speaker 2: No, it's a great point because by almost any measure,

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Speaker 2: there's never been more engagement in the NBA than there

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Speaker 2: is at this moment, no time in our history. And

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Speaker 2: I'm not just talking about globally I mean, when you

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Speaker 2: look at it as a global league, absolutely it's not

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Speaker 2: even close, but even domestically, but people are consuming our

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Speaker 2: games and other forms. It doesn't mean that it isn't

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Speaker 2: part of my job to find ways to get our

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Speaker 2: fans or potential fans to watch more games live. I mean,

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Speaker 2: I think that's very important for the health of the league.

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Speaker 2: And part and you began this conversation around storytelling, part

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Speaker 2: of what I think we can do better is not

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Speaker 2: just tell the larger stories about players in their lives

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Speaker 2: and off the floor and all that, but the nitty

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Speaker 2: gritty what YouTube, streaming, all these different channels allow us

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Speaker 2: to do. Your podcast frankly allow fans to better understand

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Speaker 2: the game. I mean, I like, just one example, just

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Speaker 2: even Jannis has been making transformative changes to me in

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Speaker 2: his game this season. He's he's reduced his number of

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Speaker 2: three point shots against that trend. He's playing more in

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Speaker 2: the in the paint. He's he and he's talking about it,

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Speaker 2: and and I think and and he's even talking about

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Speaker 2: how he's learning a new aspect of his game, you know,

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Speaker 2: playing at the elbow, playing under the basket. And when

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Speaker 2: you read a story like that, then when I'm watching

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Speaker 2: Milwaukee play, I'm looking at something else like it. It

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Speaker 2: It creates deeper engagement. It's like, all right, so instead

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Speaker 2: of sort of the type of commentary where you know

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Speaker 2: that side didn't want it tonight, you know that side

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Speaker 2: not playing as it's like really trying to understand, like

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Speaker 2: what's Doc Rivers doing with that team? Like trying to

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Speaker 2: understand why has Cleveland had the success they've had so

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Speaker 2: far this season? You know what makes Kenny such a

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Speaker 2: great coach? You know, it's it's like, what's really happening?

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Speaker 2: And I think that if to be, I'll be self

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Speaker 2: critical here about the job the league is doing. I

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Speaker 2: think we have to do a better job and not

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Speaker 2: just leave it to commentators, critics, you know, fans to

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Speaker 2: tell those great stories about the game itself, why this

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Speaker 2: game is so special? Why I began by saying, this

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Speaker 2: transformative era in the league. What it is that you

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Speaker 2: should be looking for as a fan. What's going to

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Speaker 2: draw you in to understanding what makes these players so great?

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Speaker 2: What why a combination of certain players on the floor

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Speaker 2: is working in a way that another combination of players isn't.

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Speaker 2: And I think it's like and thanks to you know

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Speaker 2: Turner inside the NBA. You know, nobody does it better

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Speaker 2: than you, guys.

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Speaker 3: I've talked to my guys Scooter Vitina, TNT, so I

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Speaker 3: understand there's like a draft before the beginning of the

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Speaker 3: year for which teams you get on your air. I

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Speaker 3: had a lot of my friends hitting me up this

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Speaker 3: past weekend because the Thunder played the Celtics and the

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Speaker 3: Knicks great games. There was two back to back battles

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Speaker 3: of Jokic and Wemby that were like musty TV, and

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Speaker 3: I had to explain to my friends that the games

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Speaker 3: that were on National TV had New York, Chicago, Atlanta, LA,

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Speaker 3: like major markets, and typically before the year, those are

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Speaker 3: the teams that get picked. But now as we're seeing

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Speaker 3: some of these games, do you think we could ever

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Speaker 3: get to like the NFL where there's a flex schedule

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Speaker 3: where if the Thunder's playing the Celtics instead of only

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Speaker 3: being on local markets, how do we bump that up

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Speaker 3: so that's on a major network and we can all

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Speaker 3: watch that game and we're not going, why can't I

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Speaker 3: watch this right now if I don't have leap bess.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So I had them a couple of things. One

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Speaker 2: is I think if you look at our schedule now,

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Speaker 2: it's less a focus on so called big markets rather

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Speaker 2: on the teams that have had as you're building the schedule,

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Speaker 2: that have either had the most success in the prior

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Speaker 2: season or based on you know, trades or a high

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Speaker 2: draft pick, are anticipated to be the better teams going

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Speaker 2: into the season. So it's it's and the good news.

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Speaker 2: I mean, look, look no further than Oklahoma City right

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Speaker 2: now in Cleveland, So certainly it doesn't correlate as at

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Speaker 2: one stay.

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Speaker 3: On Thursday night Oklahoma City and right.

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Speaker 2: So it's not so the great thing we're seeing in

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Speaker 2: this league, and I think that we're seeing far more

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Speaker 2: parody than we've ever had historically, six different champions over

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Speaker 2: the last six years. That I think though back to technology,

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Speaker 2: what will enable us to have a lot more you know,

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Speaker 2: fair ability in choosing games beginning next season is the

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Speaker 2: fact that we're moving to streaming services in addition to

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Speaker 2: traditional media. And once you're on streaming services, you no

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Speaker 2: longer have what I call the shelf space issue that

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Speaker 2: you do in traditional television. Obviously, if the game is

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Speaker 2: on TNT, there's only going to be one game on

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Speaker 2: at a time. If you have a doubleheader, one follows

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Speaker 2: the other. If you then have the availability of streaming

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Speaker 2: services in addition to traditional television, there is no shelf

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Speaker 2: space limitation whatsoever. So you can still keep the game

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Speaker 2: that was initially scheduled to be on that air, not

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Speaker 2: so called flex it. When you have such a dense

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Speaker 2: schedule like we do, it's much harder to flex the games.

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Speaker 2: But so you can still have that game that you

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Speaker 2: scheduled back in August, you know, to still appear on

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Speaker 2: January fifth, or whatever it is. But because you have streaming,

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Speaker 2: you can then show those other games nationally as well.

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Speaker 2: And so I think what you're going to see through

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Speaker 2: this next set of television deals where every game is

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Speaker 2: going to be available on a streaming service beginning next year,

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Speaker 2: not just the League Pass games, but every game that

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Speaker 2: there'll be tremendous option for our fans. And so if

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Speaker 2: that matchup is one where wasn't anticipated going in the

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Speaker 2: season to be a great matchup, or it may just

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Speaker 2: be your particular interest you're a huge San Antonio Spurs fan,

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Speaker 2: or you're a huge Oklahoma City Thunder fan and you

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Speaker 2: want to watch every one of those games, You're going

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Speaker 2: to be able to