ESPN Can Give Me Streaming NBA Games, But Comcast Says No?! (Update: ESPN Says No)

By Andrew Meyer on January 13, 2008

wiki nba games online

For the eager beavers, here is the question at the bottom of my post: Who needs to get paid before I can stream NBA games, Comcast or ESPN???

Somebody won't let me watch live games from the system ESPN already has in place. So who is it? (Update: It's definitely ESPN! New question below.)

Ok, now for some background leading up to that question.

You have heard me say before that the NBA is losing my viewership since I can't stream full NBA games online.

baron davis

Since I posted my open letter to the NBA, the large portion of Google searches referring to my site are some variation of the search "online nba streams" or "how do I watch nba games online". I blogged about this unplanned Google search phenomenon here.

My blog readership is small but growing and most of these searches don't bring sticky, long-term readers since they aren't finding what they are looking for.

However, most of the "nba streams" searchers stay for about 30 seconds because I think they are feeling exactly what I'm saying.

I'm voicing their fruitless search frustrations.

Well, since then I've done some research into who has the rights to the NBA's digital media content. I thought the NBA was going to hold the rights to streaming full NBA games online.

I was wrong.

Back in June, ESPN.com reported that the NBA's television contract extension with both ABC/ESPN and TNT included rights to digital media content.

This means that both ABC/ESPN and TNT can stream full NBA games on their respective websites!

Wow.

The contract extension that goes through the 2015-2016 season has some interesting details:

The digital rights include the ability for the networks to broadcast live games and other content on digital media, including the Web and mobile TV. The deal also covers any new outlets ESPN develops between now and 2016.

ESPN's digital rights also include:

• Ability to include ESPN and ABC games and studio programming in any ESPN offering, on a live, delayed and on-demand basis and in an interactive format.

• Use of NBA-licensed content in multi-sport programming.

• Ability to simulcast full NBA games live on ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV.

• Continued development of GameCast, fantasy games and interactive applications, as well as ESPN content and programming integration into EA Sports video games.

• Use of NBA-licensed content in user-personalized features on ESPN platforms.

This means that both these companies can show live, delayed or on-demand games on both the Internet and mobile devices. And, ESPN even has the option to create new outlets for this content.

Here is a rough estimate of what NBA content each network could show using Internet or mobile devices in the next eight or so years:

ABC: 15 regular season games plus the entire NBA Finals and some early-round playoff games

ESPN & ESPN2: 75 regular season, one Finals game and some early-round playoff games

TNT: 52 regular season, the All-Star Game and conference finals

More impressively, the ESPN article reports that NBA commissioner David Stern says that despite the NBA's declining TV ratings, there is still plenty of demand through other forms of media.

david stern

I find this very promising.

Why isn't ESPN taking advantage of its digital media content rights?

Well, they are. Just in a really crappy and half-assed way.

If you've watched ESPN lately I'm sure you have seen some of those ESPN360 fandom commercials. ESPN360 promises "Live sports. Online. 24/7." They even say its free on the ESPN360 site through select high speed providers.

On ESPN360, I entered my zip code to "Start watching now." They directed me to a page that asks for info like Internet provider, name, email etc.

I quickly entered the info and the next screen told me that "Your internet service provider doesn't carry ESPN360.com, so you are missing out on over 2,500 free live events". ESPN than encouraged me to send a pre-written message to my Internet provider.

WTF! Comcast doesn't carry ESPN360.com?!

Check out the screen capture:

espn360 comcast

This brings me back to the question at the top of this post: Who needs to pay who? Does ESPN want Comcast to kick back money for bringing users to their data cables? Does Comcast want ESPN to pay them money?

What's the deal? I don't get it.

Please, leave comments below if you can explain what's going on here.

Update: This WSJ article reports that ESPN360 is charging Internet providers for access to their broadband site. So, it looks like my Internet provider Comcast doesn't want to pay ESPN for access. Bummer for me.

I guess a better question would be: How does the "ISPs pay for access" approach compare to a completely open access approach that includes Comcast customers like myself? Is it a better business model than opening up their site and getting more traffic and ad revenues?

ESPN has a very scarce and exclusive content in their hands: full live NBA games.

You can find short NBA clips all over the Internet, especially on sites like YouTube. But, you don't run into too many full live NBA games.

If they do this right, they have like eight years of highly exclusive content for Comcast subscribers like myself.

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