Two NBA teams are hoping to roll out new interactive television technology that will allow fans to access real-time game information using a remote while they are watching a different TV program.
The Utah Jazz has joined the Dallas Mavericks as the only two teams that have agreed to test a product called Team Widget, produced by Plano, Texas-based Biap Inc.
Biap’s interactive TV widget will allow some cable and satellite subscribers to call up real-time statistics and scores from Jazz and Mavericks games from any channel on the cable and satellite system, meaning that viewers don’t necessarily have to watch the game on their regional sports network to know what’s going on in it.
“Let’s say you’re at home watching a ‘Murder, She Wrote’ rerun or whatever, but you can push a button on your remote for a screen overlay that will have scores, and statistics for the game that you are not watching,” said Eric Schulz, vice president of marketing for the Jazz.
That overlay will include breaking team news, video highlights, interviews and play-by-play during the teams’ broadcasts. It will be much like the online GameCast system, which allows people to keep track of scores and statistics of games as they happen.
But the team deals mark only a first step for the interactive TV application. The deals allow Biap to create the technology. The contracts are so new that the company isn’t sure whether the team or Biap will be responsible for negotiating with the RSNs that carry the games or the cable and satellite operators that will have to allow Biap to use their systems for the service.
Those negotiations could be tough. Schulz said he expects the pay-TV providers to pay “a small license fee” for the service as part of expected new revenue streams from the interactive technology.
“There are two pieces of revenue attached,” he said. “One is a small licensing fee we will get from the cable companies or satellite providers, and the other is sponsorship availability.”
The Jazz has yet to price the product or land sponsors for the system, expected to be in place by the start of the 2009-10 season.
Mavs owner Mark Cuban said he was drawn to the service because he wants to find new ways to increase fan interaction with the Mavs’ television broadcasts.
“We don’t expect big revenue this year,” he said. “We want to build a platform so that [with] cross-licensing between (Cuban-owned HDNet) and the Mavs, we can leverage all of our assets to create new interactive opportunities that Mavs fans and HDNet subs love.”
Industry analyst Jimmy Schaeffler expects these types of interactive services to start slow, but he believes they will become widespread in the next 10 years.
“This is the future of television for hard-core TV sports fans,” Schaeffler said. “The biggest hurdle these teams face is teaching people how to use it.”
An interactive TV developer, Biap is in discussions with other NBA teams, as well as teams in other leagues, but company officials would not identify them.
