Details have slowly started to trickle out regarding the NBA’s single team streaming package. According to ESPN’s Darren Rovell, it’ll cost $120 for one team’s entire season of games or alternatively, $6.99 per game for those who don’t want to commit to a full year.
NBA will offer out of market games this season not on national TV to fans for $6.99 per game. Season of one team's games will be $120.
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) July 22, 2015
The dam regarding single team streaming broke last month following the settlement of a class action lawsuit. As part of the settlement, the NHL would be offering single team packages for a discount of “at least 20%” on the full league price. The NBA soon followed suit by saying they’d also be offering single team packages, with eventual prices to be determined.
Naturally, these options are only available for out of market games that are *not* nationally televised – so you’re not going to be able to cut the cord and (legally) watch your local team, nor will a cord cutter be able to just pay $6.99 a game for the most exciting nationally broadcast games. The new single team and single game options are also not available internationally, and can only be enjoyed by viewers in the United States.
The single team discount is also a substantial one. The full league price will remain at $200 for the entire season, making the $120 single team price a steep 40% discount.
Rovell also raised an interesting possibility that the NBA is looking into for the future – allowing users to buy *parts* of games as opposed to the whole thing.
There are no immediate plans to sell pieces of games, like allow a fan to buy the last couple minutes of a game by clicking on a link within their Twitter or Facebook timeline, but that could be something the league will look at in the future.
I’m very curious as to what direction the NHL will go in now, and where MLB goes next spring. The $120 that the NBA is charging for a single team League Pass is almost the same amount that MLB charges for MLB.tv’s full league package, and a single team price drop for baseball fans could end up being a lot more palatable than paying jut shy of $2 per game for many of the league’s most popular teams.
[ESPN]
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