ESPN and TNT are getting a jumpstart on their new digital rights agreement with the NBA.
Both ESPN and TNT will begin utilizing the digital rights granted to them by the NBA in last summer’s television deal. The myriad of digital rights, a major aspect of the eight-year television deal extension between Disney, Turner and the NBA, will allow ESPN and TNT to stream game telecasts over various digital properties.
ESPN will simulcast every NBA game televised on its family of networks via ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV. ESPN360.com will also offer on-demand replays of ESPN NBA games. ESPN.com will feature live audio and live, in-progress look-ins from games, in addition to simulcasts of ESPN studio coverage.
TNT will also “stream its games, highlights and other programming” via TNT Overtime on NBA.com and TNT.tv. By contrast to ESPN, which will stream game telecasts online, TNT will “offer different camera angles and isolation cameras on marquee players … to complement its weekly telecasts.” Turner Sports President David Levy explained in an interview with Multichannel News that he does not think “[fully-streamed games] are exactly where people are going to want to see and view [games].”
While TNT, like ESPN, has “the rights to stream its games to cellphones, offer N.B.A. podcasts and expand league content into areas like fantasy games“, Turner may not make immediate use of those rights. NBA VP Adam Silver explains: “Although they have the same basket of rights, TNT will express them differently because they don?t have a sports portal like ESPN.”
Should Turner take over the operations of NBA.com, as has been discussed in recent weeks, there would be more of an opportunity for sports-centric fantasy games and podcasts. Even if that potential deal were to fall through, TNT could distribute its digital content via SI.com or AOL Sports.
