It’s been a year of expansion for the NBA D-League, not only on the court but also inside of television boxes across the country. Already this season, in addition to continuing to stream all of its games free on Futurecast, the league has added a national VERSUS deal, Albuquerque and Maine have struck agreements with local providers to carry some of their games and more may be on the way.
When we talked last month about Albuquerque’s deal to broadcast Thunderbirds games on tape delay on Encatada TV, T-Birds VP Adam Minnick brought up an intriguing point about the prospect of live broadcasts of home games:
During our chat, Minnick sounded upbeat about the Encantada arrangement and said while he would love to have all road games carried live, he isn’t sure if live coverage of home games would be a help or a hindrance in Albuquerque.
“Does it deter attendance?” he asked. “There’s two different theories on that at the minor league level. At the major league level, no, it helps attendance. That’s been proven. At this point, I’d take any TV coverage. In an ideal world, I’d love to be sold out and have games live, but to me, the live broadcasts aren’t as important as just getting the broadcast on, even on a tape delay.”
D-League officials sympathized with Minnick’s belief that virtually all television exposure is positive at this point and asserted the value of live broadcasts of home games as well.
“I think it is a dual-edged sword,” said Shawn Smith, the D-League’s Vice President of New Business Development and Chief Marketing Officer. “If you’re looking at broadcast and taking baby steps in your home market, I think you need to test it and see how it goes. I think it can complement what you’re doing. I think you can use it as a tool for people, for having them come to your arena to see your product.”
D-League President Dan Reed concurred and emphasized that while there may not be one universal answer to the question of whether minor league teams should broadcast home games live, he believes in the medium’s ability to expand a team’s appeal.
“I haven’t seen all the data, but my suspicion is that in most cases, TV is a great promotional tool to boost your core business,” Reed said. “That may not be true in all markets, but that’s my sense.”
The primary value in local TV deals goes beyond appealing to the hardcore D-League fans. Those people are likely already coming to the games and probably know they can watch every game free on Futurecast. They aren’t going to stop coming because the games are televised. Having the games televised locally makes it easier to catch the eye of people who aren’t devoted enough (yet) to go to the Internet specifically looking to watch D-League hoops. But if it’s something that can grab a few people that hadn’t done a lot of thinking about the D-League prior, then it’s up to the product to sell itself. As long as the standard of play is high and team broadcasts relentlessly promote the arena experience and affordability, it seems more likely to help hook new attendees than to cost the teams too many.
To that end, as I have written before, I’m not sure if it matters that much to the casual D-League viewer whether the games are televised live or not. If someone wasn’t obsessive about it beforehand, I have a hard time imagine him or her changing the channel in disgust upon finding out the game was taped. But the more D-League teams grow their brands and local popularity, the more valuable it will be to show games live and give a growing number of people who really care a chance to watch them as they happen on a bigger screen than their computer monitor. And to reap the ad revenue that comes with that.
As Smith said, “Being able to follow your team, to watch on television, that creates more value. That creates a different level of interest for the ad inventory that the team and certainly the broadcast partner could look to sell. Teams are looking to see how they can embrace this and turn it into marketing exposure and revenue opportunity, not only for them but for the broadcast provider.”
While broadcasting home games is more logistically feasible at this point because of point-to-point communication issues that still exist for teams wishing to televise road games, Smith emphasized that as one of the next steps for the D-League’s media expansion.
“As we continue to hone this live home broadcast model, the next level of interest needs to become the road broadcast model,” Smith said, “which I think has a tremendous amount of value and also addresses the team’s concern of whether or not the fans may come to the arena if you’re broadcasting home games live.”
Though Reed chose not to put a public timetable on broadcast plans going forward, he promised further advances on the way.
“This is an area where you’ll definitely continue to see growth because we know we have a great product,” Reed said. “We have great players that fans want to see, and we want to make it easier for fans to follow our league.”
Sounds good on this end. While Futurecast is a terrific service, greater ability to watch minor league hoops with less squinting at laptop screens would not be a bad deal at all.
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