NBA TV Ready for Tip-Off

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NBA TV Readies Tip-Off

John Consoli

SEPTEMBER 23, 2002 -

The National Basketball Association will premiere its upgraded NBA TV on Feb. 11, televising live games on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Saturday nights, sources close to the NBA said. Games will also air for 15 consecutive Saturday afternoons on Telemundo, beginning Feb. 15.

These games are in addition to the full schedule of matchups under the previously announced new contract with ESPN (on Wednesday and Friday nights) and TNT (Thursday nights) from the start of the season on Oct. 29. NBA TV will also feature a few postseason playoff games, and one of its weekly games will broadcast in high definition.

The NBA had planned to partner with AOL Time Warner to start an all-sports network, on which some games would be televised, but those plans were scrapped. (AOL Time Warner has a small stake in NBA TV.) The basketball network is currently available in close to 15 million homes via digital cable, In Demand and DirecTV. The net currently airs NBA highlights, classic games and other NBA-related programming on a year-round basis.

NBA Entertainment sales staffers, who currently sell advertising for NBA-produced programming such as NBA Inside Stuff, will sell ad time for the NBA TV games. The NBA sponsor/partners are expected to get first choice of ad time on the games, but spots will also be sold in the scatter market.

The NBA has yet to officially announce its plans for the NBA TV telecasts, and its sales force has not yet approached media agencies. NBA officials would not comment on the plans.

Sources close to the NBA said that after the playoffs end in late June 2003, the re-tooled NBA TV network will begin airing live WNBA games when its season starts in July. NBA TV also will broadcast international-competition basketball games, as well as games from the NBA development league.

Additional shoulder programming is currently being discussed. Announcers for the telecasts on NBA TV have not yet been selected.

DirecTV and In Demand currently offer NBA League Pass, which lets viewers watch up to 40 NBA games a week, at a cost of about $179 for the season. A source close to the NBA said the league is not concerned that adding games to NBA TV will adversely affect League Pass subscriptions.

The NBA signed a new $4.6 billion, six-year TV-rights contract with ESPN/ABC parent Walt Disney Co. and TNT parent AOL Time Warner earlier this year. Once the rights expire in 2008, the NBA may be ready to air the league's schedule on its own, since digital TV by then should be fully distributed.