Dear NBA, Stream Live Basketball Games Online

The NBA needs to wake up and smell the coffee with online content. Right now, they are kind of losing me as a viewer.

Bear with me while I set this point up.

I recently moved into a new apartment and made the decision to use the Internet for all my TV needs. It saves money and I have complete control over what and when I watch shows. I get to handle my own TV programming.

Well, I get to handle my own programming for the large networks like NBC, ABC and Fox. They each have decided to take the plunge and put their more popular shows online. I'm still waiting for the smaller cable channels to join them like AMC with their fantastic new series Mad Men.

I have been in my new apartment for less than 2 weeks and I'm already feeling large differences between Internet viewing and normal cable or satellite viewing.

Before I go into that I'll briefly describe my Internet viewing set-up. I have a MacBook hooked up to my LCD TV via a HDMI cable. I use Comcast's High-Speed Internet service to power the whole thing.

OK, back to major differences between Internet viewing and normal cable or satellite viewing. First, the transition from the actual show to the ads and back to the show is horrible (especially NBC.com). They need to smooth these transitions because right now some of the network sites make you get off your couch and reset the full-screen mode or click something to get back to the show.

When I watch a show on the Internet I want to be able to sit back on my couch and watch it.

I have to admit that the new beta site that NBC and Fox have created called Hulu is pretty damn good. I just got my beta invite a couple of days ago and have been quite pleased with the Hulu experience.

This is all gets me to my main point: Now that I have switched over to watching TV on the Internet I want all the content I used to get on cable and satellite to follow me. Do you hear me NBA? I would watch full Golden State Warriors basketball games online.

The NBA needs to start developing their gameplan for showing complete, live basketball games online. Right now, the only thing you can view on NBA.com or ESPN.com are short clips of game highlights.

The NBA would have me as a captive audience for like 2.5 hours every game if they showed Golden State Warriors games online.

I don't know what the contracts and licensing deals NBA teams have with conventional broadcasters, but I'm sure their contracts and licensing deals say nothing about streaming live games online. I'm sure this is untouched ground and NBA teams should take advantage of it.

Let me know if anyone knows about plans for bringing NBA games online.

Update: WSJ's Nick Wingfield has some excellent solutions for bringing the Internet and TV together. He doesn't talk specifically about streaming NBA games online, but he does provide some great solutions for getting people to watch online content on their TVs (which would lead the NBA to stream online games).

He even gets a decent conversation going on Techmeme.

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On another note, I'm raising donations to decode my genome. I raised about $25 today and have about $800 more to go. Go to my post Help Me Decode My Genome by Christmas for more. You can also find updates of my DNA fundraising efforts here.

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