Root Sports Rocky Mountain Exec VP & GM Tim Griggs, whose network produces the Root Sports Utah subfeed, said that the Jazz and the net are working on “bringing Jazz content to fans while the lockout continues” in order to fill some of the programming gap from a lack of games, according to Scott Pierce of the SALT LAKE TRIBUNE. No official announcement has been made and the Jazz officially “are mum on the subject,” but Griggs “is clearly interested in it.” Griggs: “I’m sure there’s a lot of pent-up demand from Jazz fans.” Pierce notes with live game broadcast and replays, there is "something in the neighborhood of 400 hours of programming ROOT might need to replace” if the NBA season is cancelled. The Jazz are “far and away the most-watched and most-valuable asset ROOT has in Utah,” which is “why the two signed a contract that moved all the games to cable through the end of 2020-21 season.” Griggs said, “Without the NBA, obviously the next most compelling programming we’ll have on our air is collegiate football and basketball.” Pierce notes as part of its “continuing partnership with the Jazz and KJZZ, ROOT is replaying local high school football games.” There also will be “some other programming of local interest, like ‘Runnin’ with the Pac,’ which features Pac-12 athletes and teams.” But “none of that is going to help much when it comes to filling the enormous hole in the schedule and the enormous hit to ROOT’s bottom line if there’s no NBA.” ESPN/ABC and TNT will have “an easier time filling their schedules,” but ROOT “doesn’t have as much sports inventory as ESPN/ABC, and can’t just run movies like TNT” (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 10/5).
WHAT’S ON TV? SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL’s Ourand & Lombardo cite media sources as saying that RSNs will “take a significant financial hit if the NBA lockout extends beyond 20 games.” That’s because of a clause in most of the regional networks’ affiliate contracts that’s known as a “product guarantee provision,” which “mandates that RSNs repay a portion of their affiliate fees if they fail to deliver a specific number of NBA games.” Sources said that national networks like ESPN and TNT “typically don’t have those types of clauses for NBA games.” RSNs will “not have to pay teams for games that aren’t played” (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 10/3 issue). The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Kevin Clark notes an NBA lockout would affect ESPN/ABC and Turner Sports, "which pay the NBA a combined $930 million per year for television contracts.” A source said that the league “would either refund that money for this season if it is canceled or would extend the length of the current contracts by a year.” Still, the media companies “would lose the chance to sell advertising against games that are canceled,” and they would also “lose the opportunity to use the games to attract viewers to their other programming” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/5).
