Adam Silver Discusses Future of Broadcasting NBA Games
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver is focused on modernizing the way the league's games can be viewed by increasing availability on mobile devices and creating unique ways to tune in.
Chuck Schilken of the Los Angeles Times passed along comments Silver made Thursday at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas about the changing media landscape. The league's chief executive believes creating a niche market to watch the end of games will be key:
"Certainly we're going from a place where it was one price for an entire season of games. Now just in the last two years, we've made single games available. But I think you're going to get to the point where somebody wants to watch the last five minutes of the game, and they go click, they'll pay a set price for five minutes as opposed to what they would pay for two hours of the game.
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Paying a small fee to watch a close finish between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors makes a lot of sense in terms of trying to market to the average mainstream sports fan. It's a more realistic option than buying the season-long NBA League Pass package or even the full game.
Oftentimes a great game is happening, and it creates a lot of buzz on social media. A perfect example was the battle between the United States and Canada in hockey for the gold medal in the World Junior Championships on Thursday night.
Finding a way to monetize those moments will be crucial in the sports world moving forward.
Silver envisions a situation in which the league will send out an alert when something noteworthy is happening, whether it be a close finish or a potentially historic performance, according to the LA Times:
"I think you're going to hit the point where for example … you're on a Twitter feed or you get an alert. I think there will be a lot more sophisticated alerts, and you'll see, 'I know Sue Bird, I like Sue Bird, Sue Bird's going for a record-setting game.' And then you're going to go click, and then you're going to get the game.
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There's little doubt that's the way of the future. Smartphones have shrunk the world, but they have also created exponentially more ways for people to spend their time. So reeling them in for the final few minutes of a game is easier than selling an entire contest, which lasts over two hours.
Silver has often been ahead of the curve with these type of issues. He's promoted ideas like making highlights readily available as a way to sell the sport, compared to the stance of leagues like the NFL and NHL, which are much more restrictive in that area.
One thing the NBA commissioner didn't provide was a timetable for when this new type of viewing will become available on a wide scale, though.
