How can NBA Broadcasts be shortened to two hours long without removing revenue-generating content?
Industry: Sports (Entertainment)
Role: Completed Individually
Software Applications: Tableau, Microsoft Excel, Word
Skills Used: Data Visualization, Quantitative Research, Qualitative Research, and Analytical Writing.
Project
As part of the entertainment industry, a trending conversation in professional sports is how to shorten game lengths without changing the actual sport and its revenue streams. Sports viewers’ attention spans continue to decrease. Despite the NBA being a leader in the category, and the MLB being a laggard, the NBA continues to push for its contests to last just two hours. Professor Kirk Goldsberry, a current NBA ESPN analyst and leader in basketball analytics, encouraged me to attack the two hour goal with a unique opportunity for my report to be presented to the NBA. This project was completed for my sports analytics course at the University of Texas.
Process
This project included a deep dive into game broadcasts. I broke down and charted every second of multiple NBA broadcasts. I charted over 1,000 minutes of NBA broadcasts. Then, I uploaded spreadsheets to Tableau to analyze. I used data visualizations and market research to drive my final report.
Process
For example, I was able to discover, through Tableau, over five minutes per broadcast are wasted during timeouts. The NBA needs faster transitions before and after timeouts, or they need to include additional advertisements.
Conclusions
The NBA, which currently averages around two hours and twenty minutes per game, can strategically shorten game broadcasts by at least seven to ten minutes without removing revenue generating content. If the NBA removes the new coach’s challenge rule, there is an additional two minutes that can be shaved off.
(full report hyperlinked below)
