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NBA Signs 8-Year TV Extension With ABC, ESPN, Turner
28/06/2007 |
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Walt Disney Co.'s ABC and ESPN and Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Sports signed eight-year contract extensions to show National Basketball Association games and expand Internet and other digital services.
The agreements are worth $7.44 billion, an average of $930 million a year, said two people familiar with the negotiations who declined to be identified because neither the league nor the networks disclose financial terms. The NBA is getting $767 million a season in its current six-year, $4.6 billion deal.
The contracts, which include digital media rights, show that the NBA can still command large rights fees, even with a declining television audience. TV ratings for this year's NBA Finals between the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers, shown on ABC, were an all-time low, according to Nielsen Media Research.
``We are just at the beginning of an extraordinary growth period in digital rights,'' NBA Commissioner David Stern said on a teleconference with reporters. ``What you are seeing is the movement of the rights to follow the fans and to enhance their fan experience.''
The new contracts extend from the 2008-09 season through 2015-16.
The agreements allow for interactive online elements such as selected camera angles, statistics feeds and video to complement TNT's game telecasts. They also provide exclusive broadband and other content, including highlights and studio shows on digital platforms.
`Cornucopia of Digital Rights'
``You have a cornucopia of digital rights now that make sports programming more valuable,'' said media analyst John Mansell, founder of John Mansell Associates in Great Falls, Virginia. ``From mobile and online to interactive features, networks are doing more than just broadcasting the games on television.''
The contracts will keep games on national television on Wednesdays on ESPN, Thursdays on TNT, Fridays on ESPN and Sundays on ABC. The NBA's own 24-hour network will televise an additional 96 regular-season games on Mondays, Tuesdays and Saturdays, the league said.
``This agreement sets a new standard,'' George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports, said in a statement. ``It is the most expansive package of rights we've acquired from a major professional league in our 27-year history.''
TNT Programming
TNT will show 52 regular-season games and up to 52 playoff games, plus the All-Star Game and All-Star Saturday events.
``This agreement expands our connection with the NBA brand on emerging platforms to enhance our growing digital portfolio,'' Phil Kent, chairman and chief executive officer of Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting unit, said in a statement.
ABC will televise a minimum of 15 regular-season games beginning on the Christmas holiday Dec. 25, and continuing on Sunday afternoons starting in January. It also will broadcast the best-of-seven NBA Finals in primetime.
ESPN will broadcast up to 75 regular-season games and up to 29 playoff games. The network also will show the NBA draft, draft lottery, All-Star Celebrities Game and Pre-Draft Camp.
ESPN and TNT will alternate coverage of Eastern and Western conference semifinals and finals each year.
``We are not buying games for TV anymore, we are buying games for all the various platforms,'' John Skipper, executive vice president of content for ESPN, said in a telephone interview. ``We don't break down what we pay for TV, telephone, Internet. It's one price for us.''
10 Percent
Primetime network shows soon will be earning as much as 10 percent of their revenue from Internet advertising, said James McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
``If you are the NBA right now, you want an upfront premium for those digital rights, or you want to keep some of the rights yourself in hopes you can monetize them on an exclusive NBA.com site,'' McQuivey said.
Stern said there are 208 games being broadcast and more than 1,000 to which the league retains digital rights.
This season, the 19 games that ABC broadcast were watched in an average 2.25 million U.S. households, down about 179,000, or 7.4 percent, from last year when it showed 20 games, according to the network.
Viewership Fell
ESPN showed 71 regular-season games this season, up from 64 in 2005-06. Its viewership fell by about 9,000 U.S. households, or 0.8 percent, to an average 1.15 million households a game, the network said.
TNT broadcast 43 games that were watched by an average 2.5 million U.S. households this season, down 253,000 households, or 9.2 percent, from the previous year, when it showed two more games, according to the network.
``Television has been fragmented and ratings have been dropping for years, but the crown jewels of sports keep drawing crowds,'' said Mansell. ``That's why they are worth these rights fees, whether you are watching the games on TV or through some other form of digital media.''
(Source: Bloomberg.com)
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