The Utah Jazz are taking a plunge that could help push the league into its next golden era with more interest from fans.
No, the team isn't planning on packaging its next 5 first round picks to trade for the rights to draft the next European phenom (at least not that TheStreet is aware of), but it is launching the next generation of media outreach with its direct-to-fans streaming network Wednesday.
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The Jazz and SEG Media launched Jazz+ on Sept. 27, a streaming service that allows fans to subscribe to stream live games and watch exclusive footage and content.
The team isn't abandoning broadcast partner KJZZ when its 2023-2024 season kicks off with an exhibition match against the Los Angeles Clippers on Oct. 8, but the new DTC option will be available for a bit more.
Fans can pay $125.50 for an annual subscription (which works out to about $1.50 per game) which gives them access to live games, on-demand games, preseason games, the aforementioned exclusive content and Spanish-language broadcasts of the game.
Fans can also choose the $15.50 per month subscription option (which works out to $186 for 12 months). The Jazz are also offering a pay-per-view option that goes for $5 per game.
The NBA, like other sports leagues, negotiates national television deals, whose money goes into a pot that that is shared by the entire league, while also allowing teams to negotiate local deals with local carriers.
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The Utah Jazz isn't the first team to make this forward-thinking move and are following the media blueprint set by Steve Balmer and the Los Angeles Clippers, who launched Clipper Vision.
For an initial sale price of $200, which works out to less than a dollar a day, Clippers fans were able to stream their favorite team's games
Meanwhile, on the national scale, the NBA is in the midst of renegotiating its television rights deals as the current $24 billion agreement expires in 2025.
Last year, during intense negotiations with Altitude Sports — the network that carries games for the NBA's Denver Nuggets, NHL's Colorado Avalanche and MLS' Colorado Rapids — Comcast (CMCSA) -) said that more than 95% of their customers watched less than the equivalent of one game per week before eventually failing to come to terms on a new contract with the sports network.
As more consumers decide to cut the cord with carriers, big companies like Comcast and Spectrum — which had acrimonious negotiations with Disney (DIS) -) earlier this year —have drawn a deeper line in the sand on how much they are willing to spend on local sports deals that used to be automatically renewed.
For example, last year Comcast also announced that it was selling its majority stake in NBC Sports Washington, home of the NBA's Washington Wizards and NHL's Washington Capitals, to the teams' owner Ted Leonsis and his own Monumental Sports Network.
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