The NBA will launch a 24-hour TV network on November 2
called NBA.com TV, according to Scott Hettrick of the
HOLLYWOOD REPORTER. The channel, produced by NBAE, will
feature studio-based live programming, live "look-ins" of
games in progress, game highlights, vintage games, NBA
videos and specials, basketball-related talk shows and
basketball-themed movies. The channel will also feature
real-time stats, scores and news from NBA.com. DirecTV will
offer NBA.com TV "at no additional charge" to subscribers of
its Total Choice Platinum, Total Choice Gold and NBA League
Pass packages. Viewer's Choice will offer the service to
its digital cable subscribers (HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, 9/24).
NBA Commissioner David Stern said that "he's already getting
carriage requests" for NBA.com TV "from digital-cable and
satellite providers in Japan, Spain, the U.K. and Mexico."
Stern said that NBA.com TV "is going slow on advertisers" as
the league "wants to get the channel up and running before
pitching it to sponsors." The "plan" is to keep NBA.com TV
on the air year-round, focusing on WNBA news and off-season
events during the NBA's hiatus (DAILY VARIETY, 9/24).
LOOKING INTO THE FUTURE: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Sam
Walker cites analysts as saying that by "packaging and
producing its own on-air content," the NBA is "adding the
kind of infrastructure it could some day use to challenge,
or even circumvent, the TV networks and capture advertising
revenue." NBAE President Adam Silver said the net is
designed to "supplement" coverage for the most ardent
basketball fans and the NBA still "recognizes the value" of
its broadcast and cable partners. But analysts say that the
NBA "may be hoping to use its new network to improve its
leverage in future broadcast-rights negotiations with the
big networks." League officials "say privately that it's
not likely they will continue to see" the type of increases
it saw in TV rights fees during the last negotiations in
'97. With that in mind, Walker writes NBA.com TV could be
"aimed at preparing the NBA for the possibility it may
someday need to begin broadcasting its own games." Paul
Kagan Associates analyst John Mansell said it's "unlikely"
NBA owners "would be willing to give away their comfortable
network cushion anytime soon," and he estimates it would
take "at least three years to line up enough local carriers
and advertisers to make [NBA.com TV] profitable." Start-up
costs for the NBA.com TV "were less than" $10M, but Walker
reports that the league has spent $100M building a studio
complex in Secaucus, NJ (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/24).
PROMO LEAGUE PASS: NBA TV President Ed Desser said that
one "of the key functions" for the network will be to market
NBA League Pass. The channel will run live from 6:30pm or
7:00pm ET each night games are scheduled (E. MEDIA, 9/24).
