The NBA will no longer air on Telemundo, ending a three-year agreement that was supposed to help increase the league’s U.S. Hispanic television audience.
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| The NBA is in talks with other Spanish-language outlets, a league spokesman said. |
“We can confirm that the contract was not renewed, but we have no further comment,” said Telemundo spokeswoman Elizabeth Sanjenis. She wouldn’t disclose any NBA ratings information.
Owned by NBC Universal, Telemundo says it reaches 92 percent of U.S. Hispanic viewers through 15 stations and 32 affiliates, with distribution to some 450 cable systems in 118 U.S. markets. But its slate of 15 NBA game weekend broadcasts and 10 WNBA games failed to develop much of an audience, and the network and league could not agree on a new deal after the old one expired at the end of the 2004-05 season.
According to industry reports, Telemundo was paying $2 million to $3 million annually for NBA rights, but the network was hurt by scheduling problems. The NBA games went up against soccer games on rival Univision and the deal carried local blackouts, hurting ratings especially in large Hispanic markets such as New York and Los Angeles.
Telemundo’s NBA broadcasts in the first year of its deal generated a 1.1 rating, less than half the network’s average across all other programming, and never gained much traction in the two subsequent seasons.
“ESPN Deportes will have a slate of game telecasts and we are in discussions currently with many Spanish-language TV and radio broadcasters for game and non-game programming,” said NBA spokesman Mike Bass.
A spokeswoman for Univision, the leading Spanish-language network in the United States, would not say whether the company was in discussions with the NBA.
