Why don't NBA teams get national TV deals?

[KnickstapeCity]

I know the NBA has deals with TNT, ESPN and ABC; also teams have deals in their local markets.

But how come teams don't try and get their own national TV deals?

I'm sure only the big marquee teams could use this as a "viable" source of income.

Imagine some random kid in Iowa watching Laker games on national TV or some random guy watching the Knicks all the way in Kentucky.

Big networks like Showtime or HBO could get involved. Doesn't necessarily have to be sports networks.

I could be wrong but I see a lot of potential in this.

 

[DPG4Life]

the Atlanta Braves were the staple of TBS forever

 

[andre patton]

i pretty much lived in California all my life...but when i was a kid our cable company used to get all the Braves games on TBS, and all the Cubs games on WGN or some shyt.

 

[LV Koopa]

Because it isn't worth it and they have to be careful of interfering with other markets. Local TV deals work because it generates local interest in the team - you can attract new fans to attend games and buy merchandise.

The Knicks or Lakers trying to find broadcasters to pick up their games in markets that already have an NBA team would become problematic with the incumbent team. The NBA functions like a cartel. Pushing your product on the potential fans of a "competitor" will cause trouble.

You also have them trying to reach into fringe markets that probably can't support an NBA team anyway. That's a good way to burn money - the relatively few fans you'd pick up as the Lakers catering to people in Kentucky aren't going to attend LA games. Extrapolate that to multiple small markets and you can see the problem.

The last and most "obvious" issue is the same reason why no team in America has a national tv deal - instead of just competing with local entertainment for dollars such as other sports teams you're now competing with everyone all over. Even extremely popular teams like the Dallas Cowboys would think twice about doing this. Over expanding a product that isn't consistently excellent and a necessity (real or imagined) is a dangerous move for a business to do.

 

[KnickstapeCity]

the Atlanta Braves were the staple of TBS forever

That's what I had in mind when I was making this thread.... But I think w/ the Braves their situation was a little unique.

Didn't TBS started as a local channel in Atlanta and became big and then the owner of TBS purchased the Braves?

 

[EducatedBrothaFromTheBank]

yeah its called league pass

 

[LV Koopa]

Yep. Also it was a cable channel before Cable TV was looked at as a viable medium for big time sports entertainment. TBS had Braves games but they weren't on the "national" scene - just games being show on a tv station with large reach at a time cable was still the little brother to network tv.

 

[SchoolboyC]

I used to get Bulls games on WGN all the time despite living in Houston. Don't know if they're still on there though since I've got league pass now.

 

[LV Koopa]

yeah its called league pass

Did you read what he wrote? He's clearly not talking about League Pass since that's the NBA's TV package. He stressed local teams like 3 times.

 

[EducatedBrothaFromTheBank]

Did you read what he wrote? He's clearly not talking about League Pass since that's the NBA's TV package. He stressed local teams like 3 times.

who are u his publicist?

 

[LV Koopa]

who are u his publicist?

 

[MJ Freedom]

The Bulls have essentially done it with WGN.

 

[tremonthustler1]

who would air it and why?

ex. Why would the Knicks decide to not air their games on their own network to hope a National network picks it up at the expense of whatever programming they have?

The Lakers have a humongous deal with Time Warner. Why render it useless?

The Braves on TBS were on mainly because of who owned both entities, so Ted Turner could do that shyt. He'd probably still have them on TBS had he not gotten in bed with Time Warner

 

[gho3st]

surprise..surprise.. a dumb knicks fan..

 

[Reid2Achieve]

I'd imagine the leagues would miss out on that league pass money. Many people get LP/Sunday ticket just to see their favorite teams/stars that aren't local