Brief excerpts from the NBA TV deal conference call.
On poor NBA television ratings:
David Stern, NBA Commissioner: Even though we had a finals sweep, each of those four games was very, very successful against the competition, so I think that we and our broadcast partners ? think that there is ratings growth still in the NBA … eventually there will be an erosion? but ultimately if we remain on our toes an expansion of interest.
John Skipper, ESPN: In the course of our overall deal, 27 of the 28 finals games have won the night for ABC in key male demos … we are quite pleased … it has to be put in the context of overall ratings? there is upside in the ratings.
David Levy, TNT: Since the last year of our prior contract, our regular season games have grown 17% in total households? this is a long, nine year deal? we do see growth in this property.
On whose vision the deal represents:
Stern: This deal was crafted as a ? vision of Turner, ESPN and the NBA. Which was really dictated by the moving opportunities that were presented to us collectively. We?ve learned more from what our partners have begun to do in the ?digital space? than we could possibly learn by just doing it ourselves. ? This is not an NBA vision, this is a Time Warner, Walt Disney, NBA vision of how future rights deals will be done.
George Bodenheimer, ESPN: David [Stern] is being modest ? I want to compliment the NBA for its forward thinking and understanding where the media partners its partnered with are going.
Levy: The NBA has always been leaders and innovators in how they work with their media partners. ?
On whether digital rights will cannibalize television viewership:
Bodenheimer: I would echo some of the comments made by David Levy. We at ABC have specific experience … with experimenting with our ABC broadcast product on ABC.com … it absolutely does not cannibalize anything, in fact it adds incremental audience. … I certainly expect all of this to be complementary … not cannibalize them.
