Podcast Of The Week: What The NBA Can Learn From Formula 1

March 11, 2023

Ben Thompson of Stratechery takes a look at “What the NBA Can Learn From Formula 1” (and what we ALL can learn from his breakdown). 

Seeing as we’ve already established my fandom of Thompson and Drive to Survive – I couldn’t resist him applying systems-logic to the business strategy of these two fan-culture driven entities. 

Thompson explains how the Netflix series A. made every team member a star (drivers, CEOs, principals, pit crew people), B. used this display of depth and drama to draw in more viewers of the show, and C. turned viewers of the show into fans of the (live) sport.

With NBA viewership numbers broadly trending down as cord-cutting has reduced whole aspects of casual sports viewership, what can they do. 

He’s got ideas. And he gives an excellent overview of how we got here, along with where we’re going. 

Read or listen here: