1. Every media company relies on ads to pay the bills. There are ads on this column. There are ads throughout the SI Media Podcast.
When it comes to ABC/ESPN’s NBA studio show, though, a little more balance between ads and analysis would better serve viewers.
This is hard to do, because Disney currently pays $1.4 billion a year for NBA rights. Additionally, money was lost the past two seasons because of the pandemic. But ABC/ESPN’s studio crew can’t be thrilled that they hardly get any air time during halftime.
An astute Reddit user recently posted the second-by-second breakdown of ABC’s halftime show for Game 1 of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and Warriors, and it showed that 64.