NBA Teams To Control Digital Rights To Live Broadcasts of Their Games Next Season

From Forbes.com (HT: Detroit Bad Boys):

Beginning next season, the league, along with its media partner, Turner Sports, plans to put digital rights for live games into the hands of its 30 teams, according to Commissioner David Stern. That would make the NBA the first major sports league to largely de-centralize its Web operation.

Details on possible terms, like fees and minimum advertising guarantees, are still being discussed. But league and team officials figure that local access, while cannibalizing pay products on NBA.com, will add more total viewers for basketball as a whole.

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It's also an acknowledgment of fans' growing appetite for consuming games on multiple screens. With television, a typical club is allotted roughly 70 games in an 82-game season for which it can sell local cable rights, the balance held back for national telecasts. Now, as online viewership increases, individual teams naturally want a piece of that action.

Next season, the dream of watching all 82 Hawks regular season games may become a reality for more people.