The NBA has something the NFL wants.
NBA TV will shift to the digital basic package on Time Warner cable, as part of a deal between the league and the cable giant. The move will add “7 million homes to NBA TV?s distribution, pushing its total subscriber number to around 19 million, nearly a 60 percent jump.“
The deal includes concessions on the part of the NBA. NBA TV will drop its license fee by 40%, which will allow the network to “[meet] Time Warner?s price-value equation that justifies putting it on digital basic.”
NBA TV now joins the yet-to-be-launched MLB Network on basic cable. The MLB Network, which will launch in 2009, will have the largest starting distribution ever for a cable network, as 47 million homes will receive the channel when it debuts. The NFL Network and Big Ten Network are at odds with some the largest cable operators, and both reside mostly on sports tiers.
As part of the agreement between the NBA and Time Warner, which is expected to be finalized later this month, Turner will run NBA TV and NBA.com, and will become a marketing partner for NBA League Pass.
