The Los Angeles Clippers’ deal with Fox Sports expired at the end of this season, and with the NBA’s national TV revenues set to explode, the team is looking for a new deal. So far, negotiations with Fox on a re-up have stalled, and the Clippers are reportedly looking into unconventional means to broadcast games.
Via the Orange County Register‘s Dan Woike:The Clippers continue to explore ways of broadcasting games in non-traditional means, and, according to a source, they’ll be commissioning a study for a new “digital video service” that would involve streaming regular season games.
The organization hopes to gather more information about how their fans watch games and what features they’d want in an over-the-top (OTT) service.Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who used to be the CEO of Microsoft, is very much entrenched in the world of tech, so the fact that the Clippers are one of the first teams to look into this isn’t a surprise at all. And with more people cutting cable, it would make sense for teams to go in a streaming direction when their TV deals are up. But enough people still have cable that it’s a good bet the Clippers will eventually sign a new TV deal — whether that’s together or separate from any streaming service they eventually start.
