isn't NBA league pass just great?...

For anyone that doesn't get the Spurs games as part of their local cable channels, I think NBA league pass is great. Now even if you're not home and you have a computer you can catch the games. I was already fuming over my work schedule when I got the mail telling me about NBA league pass broadband. I'm sure a lot of you have heard about it. Now one can watch NBA league pass games on the computer. I still don't know how but I guess when it's time I'll give it a shot.

Of course, not everyone has access to a computer when they're working, but if you do, I guess we just got a big break huh?

Great if you live in the US.

Absolutely pathetically SHITHOUSE if you don't.

Why the hell doesn't the NBA make this service available to those outside the US? In Oz, we get virtually no NBA through any source (a few games a week on cable, which I don't have, is all).

NBA marketing, you suck.

oh shoot yeah that sux i guess. but hey im sure they'll eventually make it available outside of the u.s. too, it's just that they're doing this expansion gradually. Maybe next year... :-\

Yeah, you know what, I've written five letters to them about this, and the fact that a lot of overseas fans can't watch NBA because of poor overseas coverage, and NOT ONCE have they even bothered to reply.

It's not a technical issue - it takes more effort for them to block overseas IP addresses than it does not to.

The NBA talks a good talk about international fans, but in fact in a lot of ways they are full of sheeit.

As you can see, they've made me pretty angry. :devil

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RuffnReadyOzStyle

Yeah, you know what, I've written five letters to them about this, and the fact that a lot of overseas fans can't watch NBA because of poor overseas coverage, and NOT ONCE have they even bothered to reply.

It's not a technical issue - it takes more effort for them to block overseas IP addresses than it does not to.

The NBA talks a good talk about international fans, but in fact in a lot of ways they are full of sheeit.

As you can see, they've made me pretty angry. :devil

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:tu

yea i know, i feel you. and i think there is no immediate solution to that, but i am very very sure that in the future the conditions for viewers outside of the U.S. are going to get better. One can tell because the international focus of the NBA is certainly growing every year. The NBA has already had regular-season games overseas. It wouldn't surprise me that maybe they even started having like a world cup of clubs throughout the world you know? That'd be something to watch hehe...

I just made my call yesterday. Even though exhibition games are available on LP, nothing will be on braodband until the regular season starts. I'm anxious to see how that will work.

Actually, I think you're wrong.

1. They could very easily improve service to overseas fans by simply allowing them to buy league pass over the net. I'd do that in a heartbeat, and so would millions of others.

2. I don't think they care about international fans so much as Chinese fans. There are 1.3billion people in China, and they get 40+ games a season on FTA TV. Who cares about the rest of the word when 2% of the Chinese population is more people than in the entirety of Australia?

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Originally Posted by ShoogarBear

I just made my call yesterday. Even though exhibition games are available on LP, nothing will be on braodband until the regular season starts. I'm anxious to see how that will work.

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Yeah I'm interested in that too.

Ruff (and other int'l fans) I don't get why the NBA doesn't offer it. They'd make a ton of money as there's fans everywhere willing to pay to get the games. I just don't get it.

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Originally Posted by Kori Ellis

Ruff (and other int'l fans) I don't get why the NBA doesn't offer it. They'd make a ton of money as there's fans everywhere willing to pay to get the games. I just don't get it.

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Particularly odd with the league's rampant interest in promoting the game internationally.

maybe they are following the nfl's logic by limiting their all access market. less than 30% of americans have directv, yet that's the only place you can see every game.

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Originally Posted by leemajors

maybe they are following the nfl's logic by limiting their all access market. less than 30% of americans have directv, yet that's the only place you can see every game.

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thats because DirecTV forked over a ton of money for the rights. Today, NBA broadcasting rights are so expensive that noone outside the US can afford it. So us international viewers are fucked. What I don't get is why DirecTV, which does offer NBA league pass in the states not offer it here in South America. I mean, they already have the rights I imagine.

The fact that it's not offered over the internet is absolutely crazy. The only thing I can think of is that the NBA is afraid of re-broadcast rights being violated (express written consent...) in locations where they have no recourse for punishing violators.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kori Ellis

Ruff (and other int'l fans) I don't get why the NBA doesn't offer it. They'd make a ton of money as there's fans everywhere willing to pay to get the games. I just don't get it.

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Yup, we don't get it either.

It's got to be an intellectual property rights issue, but sort it out already! Or at the very least reply to the letters your international fans send you on such an important issue.

Pull your finger out NBA - we want to watch your game, and we're willing to give you money, so take the cash and provide the service.

The Australian Football League broadcasts EVERY GAME over the net two hours after it is played for $39.95 a season. And the NBA can't work it out? Sheesh.

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Originally Posted by BeerIsGood!

The fact that it's not offered over the internet is absolutely crazy. The only thing I can think of is that the NBA is afraid of re-broadcast rights being violated (express written consent...) in locations where they have no recourse for punishing violators.

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pff... even if thats true, some exposure is still better than none at all. You're telling me they are not offering the service elsewhere because people may watch it again without permission? http://spurstalk.com/forums/images/smilies/smilol.gif First establish the market, THEN worry about people rebroadcasting anything.

Besides like Ruff up there said, they're already showing more games in China than anywhere else outside the US. Asia is copyright infringement heaven.

As it stands, the NBA sells TV rights to each country individually. If they offer league pass to the world, they'd lose a lot of leverage. Less leverage = Less money. And right now they make more money selling their product country to country than they would selling it via the internet.

But soon, within the next 1-3 years, they'll figure out a profitable format and games will be available live around the world. There's just no way they could hold out for much longer.

I don't know if that's the case, but that's the only reason I can see. And they don't care about people being able to see it without permission - they care about people making money off of it without permission. God forbid someone else makes a dollar off of exploiting NBA games - that would be the apocolypse to Stern. I don't agree with it - but I think that's why they are so slow to go international with league pass.

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Originally Posted by timvp

As it stands, the NBA sells TV rights to each country individually. If they offer league pass to the world, they'd lose a lot of leverage. Less leverage = Less money. And right now they make more money selling their product country to country than they would selling it via the internet.

But soon, within the next 1-3 years, they'll figure out a profitable format and games will be available live around the world. There's just no way they could hold out for much longer.

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DAMN they are fucking slow! Us foreign folk have been waiting for decades now! http://spurstalk.com/forums/images/smilies/smibang.gif In fact, in the early to mid 90's us Argies got to see some NBA games. I think they were delayed, but they sure as hell were more than what we got now. My question is why can't they hurry the fuck up, and get to selling the rights here in South America... hell we've had them before http://spurstalk.com/forums/images/s...idepressed.gif

Quote:

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Originally Posted by timvp

As it stands, the NBA sells TV rights to each country individually. If they offer league pass to the world, they'd lose a lot of leverage. Less leverage = Less money. And right now they make more money selling their product country to country than they would selling it via the internet.

But soon, within the next 1-3 years, they'll figure out a profitable format and games will be available live around the world. There's just no way they could hold out for much longer.

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With their TV audience in the US getting smaller and smaller by the year - they're gonna have to figure out something. When a Nascar rain delay kicks the Lakers-Cavs game's (or as Stern bills it - Lebron v Kobe) ass in the ratings... something is terribly wrong.

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Originally Posted by MaNuMaNiA

thats because DirecTV forked over a ton of money for the rights. Today, NBA broadcasting rights are so expensive that noone outside the US can afford it. So us international viewers are fucked. What I don't get is why DirecTV, which does offer NBA league pass in the states not offer it here in South America. I mean, they already have the rights I imagine.

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i know directv forked over a lot of money, the nfl could make way more money offering it on both satellite and cable. it doesn't make sense. the nfl isn't hurting for cash, but they are missing out on at least 40% of the population.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by leemajors

i know directv forked over a lot of money, the nfl could make way more money offering it on both satellite and cable. it doesn't make sense. the nfl isn't hurting for cash, but they are missing out on at least 40% of the population.

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The NFL got $3.5 billion from DirecTV. For the NFL to make that up, they'd need to sell Sunday Ticket to 17.5 million homes.

That's not happening.

What the NBA miscalculated is that they lost a big chunk of fans in some countries over the last decade because of the difficulty of watching games. Hard core fans like me stayed on, but I know a lot of ex-NBA fans who switched to other sports because they were so frustrated by the lack of coverage.

As I said though, it seems China is the core NBA export strategy and the rest of us can just shut up. IMHO, poor business strategy. They could have the whole world watching if they gave us league pass! They are cutting thieir noses off to spite their face.

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Originally Posted by RuffnReadyOzStyle

Great if you live in the US.

Absolutely pathetically SHITHOUSE if you don't.

Why the hell doesn't the NBA make this service available to those outside the US? In Oz, we get virtually no NBA through any source (a few games a week on cable, which I don't have, is all).

NBA marketing, you suck.

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This is my biggest complaint with the NBA! I also wrote letter/e-mails and never got any reply.

While many of the concerns or reasons posted in this thread are valid, most of them are really easily solved.

But to me the best indication of how much the NBA cares about non-Chinese international fans is their deal with Google video. So they put the games on the google server a few hours after they are finished, they charge a fee that is a couple times more expensive than the LP for the whole season and despite these ridiculous conditions it is not available to anybody outside the US!?!?!?

If they can't do a proper job for recorded games (that no non US broadcaster is interested in showing), I'm not too optimistic that they'll ever figure out the live webcasts.

:flipoff

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RuffnReadyOzStyle

What the NBA miscalculated is that they lost a big chunk of fans in some countries over the last decade because of the difficulty of watching games. Hard core fans like me stayed on, but I know a lot of ex-NBA fans who switched to other sports because they were so frustrated by the lack of coverage.

As I said though, it seems China is the core NBA export strategy and the rest of us can just shut up. IMHO, poor business strategy. They could have the whole world watching if they gave us league pass! They are cutting thieir noses off to spite their face.

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Very very true about the ex-fans! In our region people love good basketball, and used to follow the NBA religiously (many free national broadcaster were showing a game a week (yes only 1 game a week) and that was enough to have a solid fan base.

American football had NO fan base in Slovenia until a small private broadcaster started showing two games a week and a one hour NFL weekly magazine. It was on at the craziest times in the middle of the night - and it still created a fan base that now follows the NFL! We're talking about a sport that has absolutely no tradition in these parts of the world, can you imagine what it would do for the NBA since basketball is one of the most popular sports.

The truth is, the NBA's protecting the value of their TV contracts. Simple as that.

Follow me here. First, the NBA and its teams sell international, national, and local TV rights. They get big, big bucks from that. Then, they sell NBATV and NBALP on cable/satellite for much smaller bucks, so they don't want it to impact the big bucks they get from TV rights. So, they black out anything that would possibly compete with local or national broadcasts.

Then, they decide to add broadband Internet streaming of games to get even more $ from people. Oooh, wait a minute, they say. How do we do blackouts over the Internet? We have to know where subscribers are, so we can black them out selectively. How do we do that? Use some fancy IP-address-mapper thing? Come on, that can be spoofed. Hey, let's tie it to NBALP, and require that you have a valid cable or satellite subscription with a "verified" address/zipcode BEFORE you get access to broadband games! Yeah, that's the ticket.

See how it works?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by YoMamaIsCallin

The truth is, the NBA's protecting the value of their TV contracts. Simple as that.

Follow me here. First, the NBA and its teams sell international, national, and local TV rights. They get big, big bucks from that. Then, they sell NBATV and NBALP on cable/satellite for much smaller bucks, so they don't want it to impact the big bucks they get from TV rights. So, they black out anything that would possibly compete with local or national broadcasts.

Then, they decide to add broadband Internet streaming of games to get even more $ from people. Oooh, wait a minute, they say. How do we do blackouts over the Internet? We have to know where subscribers are, so we can black them out selectively. How do we do that? Use some fancy IP-address-mapper thing? Come on, that can be spoofed. Hey, let's tie it to NBALP, and require that you have a valid cable or satellite subscription with a "verified" address/zipcode BEFORE you get access to broadband games! Yeah, that's the ticket.

See how it works?

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Well I do, but you on the other hand don't have a clue.

First we are talking about non US markets where your so called national coverage is non existent. So the black out is not an issue.

If you wanted to limit streaming to certain countries, it's the easiest thing to do (oh and btw spoofing IPs - not easy at all specially if you want the bandwidth needed for a webcast).

You take the credit card billing address as the base for approval and yes IP numbers are territorial, so you just authorize certain classes and block others. The system wouldn't be fair to a minority (as opposed to the majority now) of viewers and there's the potential for someone to re-broadcast the stream. The solution is again very simple: Don't limit it, and just sell it to whoever wants to pay for it.

As for the few countries where TV coverage is available two things are a factor: Nobody outside the US has the option to chose which game they're going to watch, so even in the countries with the local commercial coverage there's a legitimate market and second nobody who has TV coverage will chose a lower quality web cast, when for roughly the same money they could watch it in comfort on their big ass TVs.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Slomo

Well I do, but you on the other hand don't have a clue.

First we are talking about non US markets where your so called national coverage is non existent. So the black out is not an issue.

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no, there are games that are broadcast internationally on satellite nets such as ESPN.

Quote:

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If you wanted to limit streaming to certain countries, it's the easiest thing to do (oh and btw spoofing IPs - not easy at all specially if you want the bandwidth needed for a webcast).

You take the credit card billing address as the base for approval and yes IP numbers are territorial, so you just authorize certain classes and block others.

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Yeah I agree they could go that way but I suspect they just haven't worked through all the negotiations and set up everything they way they want and gotten everyone to sign off on it. For all I know they may be working deals to get Rockets games broadcast in China and Spurs games broadcast in Argentina, that would certainly put international Internet streaming discussions on hold.

I also think they are worried about opening up naked broadband subscriptions, just verified by a credit card, either international or national.

On the other hand, Major League Baseball has done exactly this. You can sign up for a $15/month subscription to get all games streamed to your PC, and they do enforce blackouts by region. So, maybe, the NBA can get a clue from this.

Quote:

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The system wouldn't be fair to a minority (as opposed to the majority now) of viewers and there's the potential for someone to re-broadcast the stream. The solution is again very simple: Don't limit it, and just sell it to whoever wants to pay for it.

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You are making the mistake of thinking rationally! :) I hope this does come to pass over time. Not this year though.

Quote:

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As for the few countries where TV coverage is available two things are a factor: Nobody outside the US has the option to chose which game they're going to watch, so even in the countries with the local commercial coverage there's a legitimate market and second nobody who has TV coverage will chose a lower quality web cast, when for roughly the same money they could watch it in comfort on their big ass TVs.

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Yes, but I get the feeling they are fearing losing control of the webcasts.

Didn't the NFL just start an internet service for overseas customers? I wonder what that's been like so far for int'l customers as far as intellectual property and profits.

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Originally Posted by YoMamaIsCallin

no, there are games that are broadcast internationally on satellite nets such as ESPN.

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If my info is correct we are talking about a game a few times a week (sometime as little as once a week) in a few markets. Beside those you have countries like France, the UK, Italy and I believe Spain where NBA TV is available and they are showing one game a night.

Quote:

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Yeah I agree they could go that way but I suspect they just haven't worked through all the negotiations and set up everything they way they want and gotten everyone to sign off on it. For all I know they may be working deals to get Rockets games broadcast in China and Spurs games broadcast in Argentina, that would certainly put international Internet streaming discussions on hold.

I also think they are worried about opening up naked broadband subscriptions, just verified by a credit card, either international or national.

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Technically it's not an issue, I get the feeling it's just not high enough on their priority list.

Quote:

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On the other hand, Major League Baseball has done exactly this. You can sign up for a $15/month subscription to get all games streamed to your PC, and they do enforce blackouts by region. So, maybe, the NBA can get a clue from this.

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So does the NFL. And the Euroleague for at least the final 4 and FIBA for the WC. You have to realize that pirate sites are already offering NBA games on the net at ridiculously low quality and without any kind of guarantees and quality of service considerations. They are successful and making a fortune only because there isn't a legal alternative - actually any alternative. The only way to stop piracy is to offer a competitive product at a competitive price (more expensive and better quality will work).

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You are making the mistake of thinking rationally! :) I hope this does come to pass over time. Not this year though.

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You have a point, but I'm a fan that stays up late for games that usually start at 2 am and all I have are scoreboards - this forum is the only thing keeping me sane (the game blogs at least give me a glimpse into what is happening). So I do get emotional on the issue :).

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Yes, but I get the feeling they are fearing losing control of the webcasts.

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Fear is irrational, hire some specialist and do it! (or take the NFL commissioner to dinner and ask him how they did it - I mean he can't eat that much!) And if live streams are such a delicate subjects, why not make recording on google video available to international fans? What's the rational there? Please bear in mind that the NBA isn't even making non US (NTSC) DVDs or sell those outside the US (except through the web) so what are they afraid of there? Screwing up all the pirates that offer torrents of the games?

Anyway some of your concerns are probably in order, but I have been listening about the internationalization of the NBA from Stern for years now, and have yet to see some real results. Somebody need to explain to Stern that there's a lot more countries out there.

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Originally Posted by Johnny_Blaze_47

Didn't the NFL just start an internet service for overseas customers? I wonder what that's been like so far for int'l customers as far as intellectual property and profits.

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I believe they started it last season. It works just fine, watched some games and it's not like TV but it's a hell of a lot more than what we get from the NBA.

So I need to ask a question, because I have league pass and all that in California and I am going to Australia for a few days, does that mean that since I should be authenticated, that I do get to watch the Spurs from the Sydney Mercure Hotel on Broadband?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Man In Black

So I need to ask a question, because I have league pass and all that in California and I am going to Australia for a few days, does that mean that since I should be authenticated, that I do get to watch the Spurs from the Sydney Mercure Hotel on Broadband?

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That's a good question. You should be able to. I don't think they'll filter it out if it's a temporary occurence (IP from foreign country). I would imagine it would just raise a red flag and they would follow it if it persists for a longer period.

In any case let us know!

I'm curious about it.

I'm curious, too. Maybe I get make some extra cash from a certain desperate Slovenian.

(Note to NBA monitors: just joking!)

If people outside the US want to watch NBA league pass and they know someone in the US that has it - they should get a slingbox and have that person install it for them. That would be the absolute best way to do it provided you have someone stateside willing to have the slingbox set up.

Offer to split the cost of LP or something.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Man In Black

So I need to ask a question, because I have league pass and all that in California and I am going to Australia for a few days, does that mean that since I should be authenticated, that I do get to watch the Spurs from the Sydney Mercure Hotel on Broadband?

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I would think yes because they advertise the broadband service as being the way to keep up with games when you are traveling.

Why don't you call them and ask, and share the results here?

yomama - on the selling rights overseas issue, I bet in most countries they make peanuts from that. I know that in Australia they used to sell a game a week to FTA TV, but even that got too expensive, so now the only NBA in Australia is 2 games a week (I think) on cable. If they allowed webcast league pass on a delay, they'd make sooooo much more money.

As for losing power over their IP, really, who are they kidding? Except for exceptional games in the playoffs that are special to fans, you don't really re-watch basketball. I mean, you wouldn't copy heaps of games from the regular season and then re-watch them or re-broadcast them, it's a very immediate service - most times you watch a game, then move onto the next. I don't see their issue here.

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Originally Posted by BeerIsGood!

If people outside the US want to watch NBA league pass and they know someone in the US that has it - they should get a slingbox and have that person install it for them. That would be the absolute best way to do it provided you have someone stateside willing to have the slingbox set up.

Offer to split the cost of LP or something.

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That's all good and well except the time differential which makes it rather difficult. A good system for the playoffs though.

Someone ought to send a link to this thread to NBA marketing and get a reply from them.

Oh, and I'd say Man In Black is NOT going to be able to watch those games because the IP address of his host will be in Australia and that means he'll be banned. When you in Sydney MIB, and whatcha doing?

Man, when they announced NBA Google video I was so exstatic, then after repeated disallowed attempts to buy games, I felt like... I'll keep my thought about what i wanted to do to the NBA marketing dept to myself, but it was nasty I can tell you! :lol

Ruffn......

At least you get to watch some spurs games on ESPn or Fox Sports in Australia :smokin I didnt get to see more than one Nuggets game last season

Spurs vs Mavs is on Fox Sports and Spurs vs Cavs is on ESPN. Do you have cable ?

Why not download the games off of Google Video?

Nuggets - I don't have cable, and because NBA and then Australian NBL basketball disappeared from TV, now there aren't many places (bars, etc) that will even switch it on for you.

enigma - Google video is only available in the US, that's the bleeding point! Grrrrr... :devil

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Originally Posted by enigma

Why not download the games off of Google Video?

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why not read the entire thread before posting?

If you can't watch something on your TV then blame your got damn government, not the NBA.

Shit.

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Originally Posted by SequSpur

If you can't watch something on your TV then blame your got damn government, not the NBA.

Shit.

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This is true. If we've got something you want, you need to come take it from us.

Terrific
Viewing
Usually


:smokin

Quote:

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Originally Posted by RuffnReadyOzStyle

That's all good and well except the time differential which makes it rather difficult. A good system for the playoffs though.

Someone ought to send a link to this thread to NBA marketing and get a reply from them.

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With the slingbox you can choose to record the game to your HD and then watch when you want. Then you erase it and record the next game. I believe you can set it with the software - but I might be wrong about that.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BeerIsGood!

With the slingbox you can choose to record the game to your HD and then watch when you want. Then you erase it and record the next game. I believe you can set it with the software - but I might be wrong about that.

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Sure, but the slingbox is with the person in the US, and I'm hardly going to try to tell them how to run their life so that I can watch NBA.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by sequspur

If you can't watch something on your TV then blame your got damn government, not the NBA.

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Sequ, WTF are you talking about? It has nothing to do with govt and everything to do with the NBA marketing dept being lazy/making bad decisions. At the moment they are killing their OS fan base for illusory monetary reward.

Your non-sequiters are continually becoming less intelligible over time. ;)

You don't have to tell them how to run their life. Once it's hooked up you can control what channel you want through the software that comes with it. All they would have to do is hook the thing up - after that they don't have to do a thing.

Okay, cheers, Beer, I have a cunning plan... ;)

Dude, just because your govt only allows you to watch Greg Norman reruns and Crocodile Dundee redos, has nothing to do with David Stern.

Has anybody gotten this to work yet? When I click on a gam i try to get by broadband, I get a window (which seems to buggy, since I also get an error message with it) saying I need to create an account. I already have, WTF?

I tried to use it tonight. I got to the window where you pick your service (DirecTV) and enter your DirecTV username. It says my username doesn't exist. I went and verified with DirecTV that it's correct.

Now in order to get it to work it says I have to fax them a copy of my bill and then it will take 5-7 days to get it working.

:wtf

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kori Ellis

I tried to use it tonight. I got to the window where you pick your service (DirecTV) and enter your DirecTV username. It says my username doesn't exist. I went and verified with DirecTV that it's correct.

Now in order to get it to work it says I have to fax them a copy of my bill and then it will take 5-7 days to get it working.

:wtf

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Later last night I was finally able to get to that window, and it wouldn't accept my Comcast account number.

Even worse, they want you to fax them a copy of your bill WITH THE LEAGUE PASS CHARGES ON IT.

That won't come in until next month. So basically I won't get the service for another month + 5-7 days.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShoogarBear

Even worse, they want you to fax them a copy of your bill WITH THE LEAGUE PASS CHARGES ON IT.

That won't come in until next month. So basically I won't get the service for another month + 5-7 days.

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My current bill (issued 10/25 which I can see online) has the League Pass Charges on it.

Is anyone else getting the free preview that's supposedly on right now? I'm not. The channels just have the usual "click here to order" screen.
F--ing comcast...

When there are no games, there's nothing to broadcast.

Well, we got LP for the first time as an anniversary gift to each other (aren't we the romantics?) . . . we won't be billed until next month, since our last bill was issued before our order. I haven't tried the broadband yet, but it seems like a real pain in the ass. Of course, it should be a non-issue, since we don't travel much and don't have time for games when we do, but I'll be interested to see how this sorts itself out.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ShoogarBear

When there are no games, there's nothing to broadcast.

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Thanks for the tip. I meant last night DURING the games all the channels were blocked.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ManuTastic

Is anyone else getting the free preview that's supposedly on right now? I'm not. The channels just have the usual "click here to order" screen.
F--ing comcast...

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Posted at 8:02 a.m. Eastern time.

I live in Dallas. When I went to the Philippines they showed more Spurs games in Manila than what I get in Dallas.

So sometimes the international coverage is better than the non-local, US coverage.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kori Ellis

I tried to use it tonight. I got to the window where you pick your service (DirecTV) and enter your DirecTV username. It says my username doesn't exist. I went and verified with DirecTV that it's correct.

Now in order to get it to work it says I have to fax them a copy of my bill and then it will take 5-7 days to get it working.

:wtf

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Log in to your account over the Internet and print off a bill, then fax it to them.

Looks like they ARE offering broadband webcasts of games internationally!!

from http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/sports/15909663.htm

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The expansion of NBA League Pass Broadband on NBA.com provides fans in select countries, including Nowitzki's native Germany, with access to live video webcasts of more than 30 games each week throughout the regular season.

Other countries getting in on the League Pass webcast are Australia, Austria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

The league is also offering fans in China 87 game webcasts on NBA.com/china and close to 60 game webcasts to fans in Brazil through Globo.com.

"As the popularity of the NBA continues to grow around the world, NBA League Pass Broadband is another great way for fans in these countries to experience the excitement of our game," said Steve Hellmuth, NBA senior vice president of operations and technology.

Nowitzki spent about an hour after practice shooting commercials for the expanded service. Though he wasn't exactly sure of all the features -- "I should do more background," he joked -- he's excited about the league's increased exposure overseas.

The Mavs open the season tonight against San Antonio at American Airlines Center.

"Back when I was watching the NBA we only had one game a week, if that," Nowitzki said. "Now [tonight's] game is going to be on live. It's always on at 3 or 4 in the morning, which stinks a little bit because nobody really stays up that late. But it's great for my family and friends to be able to see the games."

They don't have to get up in the wee hours of the morning any more. One of the features on NBA.com is an on-demand service available 24 hours after each webcast.

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Ruff, did you see that?^^

They're offering it in Brasil??? damn... well I guess them having over 180 million inhabitants makes a bit of a difference

:smokin thats sweet. Now they need to offer a pure online service that isnt connected to your cable account

I finally got the broadband to accept my account number! :elephant:

Replays of last night's games are available.

So is anyone else NOT getting the free league pass preview now? ("Now," for the chronically literal, is meant here in the sense of "in the present timeframe," as opposed to "at this exact second.") I seem to remember they messed this up last year as well... I think it took several days for someone to wake up and turn the switch on.