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10-30-2007, 09:26 AM
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October 30, 2007
N.B.A.’s Television Partners Get Expanded Digital Rights
By RICHARD SANDOMIR (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/richard_sandomir/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
ESPN and TNT will start the N.B.A. season with a slew of new digital rights that will, among other things, let them stream their games live on their broadband outlets.
“Part of the point is that when we get exclusive games, we can broadcast them anywhere,” said John Skipper, the executive vice president for content at ESPN. “When we have a Friday doubleheader, you can watch it on TV, or on your phone, or you can watch it on your computer on ESPN360.com (http://espn360.com/).” ESPN360.com is a broadband service.
The digital rights were negotiated in eight-year media agreements that were announced in June and will pay the N.B.A. $7.4 billion through 2015-16. As part of the deals, ESPN and TNT were allowed to deploy their digital rights this season, while the first year of the television portions of the contracts does not start until next season.
“We all agreed that these were rights that advertisers were demanding,” said Adam Silver, the N.B.A.’s deputy commissioner and chief operating officer. “And it made no sense to send them into the marketplace with one hand tied behind their backs.”
For ESPN, the rights will let them stream their games on their Mobile TV service that is now available on Verizon’s MediaFlo, as well as on ESPN360. It will also allow live and on-demand streaming of their N.B.A. studio shows on ESPN.com (http://espn.com/) and Mobile TV, and live audio streaming of their radio and TV games and live look-ins to games on ESPN.com.
Skipper said the broadband capabilities — in terms of speed, capacity and resolution — have improved on ESPN360 since the deal was announced four months ago.
“360 can do things that couldn’t be done before,” he said. “We’ve been ramping up with more applications and more software.”
TNT has the same rights as ESPN. Its broadband service, TNT Overtime (which is available on TNT.tv and NBA.com (http://nba.com/)) will stream its games, highlights and other programming, in addition to “Inside the NBA,” which has been available. It will also have the rights to stream its games to cellphones, offer N.B.A. podcasts and expand league content into areas like fantasy games. The league also granted the networks digital rights to place its content on digital platforms not yet created.
“Although they have the same basket of rights,” Silver said, “TNT will express them differently because they don’t have a sports portal like ESPN.” He said the league and TNT are in negotiations on a deal that could make Turner Sports, the parent of TNT, the production partner of NBA.com.
The interactive arm of Turner Sports runs PGA.com (http://pga.com/) and NASCAR.com (http://nascar.com/). If that option does not work out, Silver said, TNT may be able to deploy its digital rights on SI.com (http://si.com/) and AOL (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/aol/index.html?inline=nyt-org) Sports, which are also part of Time Warner.
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October 30, 2007
N.B.A.’s Television Partners Get Expanded Digital Rights
By RICHARD SANDOMIR (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/richard_sandomir/index.html?inline=nyt-per)
ESPN and TNT will start the N.B.A. season with a slew of new digital rights that will, among other things, let them stream their games live on their broadband outlets.
“Part of the point is that when we get exclusive games, we can broadcast them anywhere,” said John Skipper, the executive vice president for content at ESPN. “When we have a Friday doubleheader, you can watch it on TV, or on your phone, or you can watch it on your computer on ESPN360.com (http://espn360.com/).” ESPN360.com is a broadband service.
The digital rights were negotiated in eight-year media agreements that were announced in June and will pay the N.B.A. $7.4 billion through 2015-16. As part of the deals, ESPN and TNT were allowed to deploy their digital rights this season, while the first year of the television portions of the contracts does not start until next season.
“We all agreed that these were rights that advertisers were demanding,” said Adam Silver, the N.B.A.’s deputy commissioner and chief operating officer. “And it made no sense to send them into the marketplace with one hand tied behind their backs.”
For ESPN, the rights will let them stream their games on their Mobile TV service that is now available on Verizon’s MediaFlo, as well as on ESPN360. It will also allow live and on-demand streaming of their N.B.A. studio shows on ESPN.com (http://espn.com/) and Mobile TV, and live audio streaming of their radio and TV games and live look-ins to games on ESPN.com.
Skipper said the broadband capabilities — in terms of speed, capacity and resolution — have improved on ESPN360 since the deal was announced four months ago.
“360 can do things that couldn’t be done before,” he said. “We’ve been ramping up with more applications and more software.”
TNT has the same rights as ESPN. Its broadband service, TNT Overtime (which is available on TNT.tv and NBA.com (http://nba.com/)) will stream its games, highlights and other programming, in addition to “Inside the NBA,” which has been available. It will also have the rights to stream its games to cellphones, offer N.B.A. podcasts and expand league content into areas like fantasy games. The league also granted the networks digital rights to place its content on digital platforms not yet created.
“Although they have the same basket of rights,” Silver said, “TNT will express them differently because they don’t have a sports portal like ESPN.” He said the league and TNT are in negotiations on a deal that could make Turner Sports, the parent of TNT, the production partner of NBA.com.
The interactive arm of Turner Sports runs PGA.com (http://pga.com/) and NASCAR.com (http://nascar.com/). If that option does not work out, Silver said, TNT may be able to deploy its digital rights on SI.com (http://si.com/) and AOL (http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/aol/index.html?inline=nyt-org) Sports, which are also part of Time Warner.