Change the calculus of viral video

The big opportunity for content owners The NBA recently posted that its 2026 playoffs are “delivering their highest viewership through the Conference Semifinals in 29 years, with an average of 4.5 million viewers per game across ABC, ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video.” That is designed to sound impressive. Then you realize the viral video of a fan eating spaghetti directly behind legendary NBA commentator Mike Breen gained an estimated 20–50 million aggregate views and hundreds of thousands of likes across platforms within 24–48 hours.