“What is getting close is June 21, which is the date I boldly announced we would announce the [television] deal and I?m still sticking to it.” — David Stern.
Today is June 21, which could have been the day of Game 7 of the NBA Finals had the Cleveland Cavaliers been blessed with any talent beyond LeBron James. Today is also the deadline the NBA set to announce the new television deal with ESPN/ABC and TNT.
Previously, Commissioner Stern wanted the television deal done by the end of 2006.
As of this evening, the deal has not been announced. And barring some sort of unlikely prime time announcement by the league, the deal will not be announced today. While that is not necessarily ominous — the deal will get done — one wonders what could be holding up any announcement.
More than likely, the record low ratings for the NBA Finals are having little effect on negotiations. This is essentially a cable television deal; games airing on ABC are produced by ESPN, and have been even before the move from ABC Sports to ESPN on ABC. ABC airs very few regular season games and a handful of playoff games, all of which air either on Sunday afternoons or on low-risk Saturday nights. ABC only gives up seven nights of non-Saturday prime-time, and only in the summer. In other words, the network does not have very much at stake.
Likely, the biggest hang-up is over an “additional package of digital rights” the league is offering that includes NBA.com and NBA TV. According to The Sports Business Journal, in an article published June 4, “Turner executives were in NBA offices last week talking about that package, which would involve producing some aspect of those entities. One scenario being discussed has Turner increasing its involvement in the management, programming and operations of NBA TV, including sharing talent, infrastructure and distribution leverage.”
Regardless of what is seemingly holding up the television deal, expect some sort of announcement by the NBA Draft next week.
