<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Some 40 NBA games will be available live online each week as the league extends its television subscription package to the Internet. Fans, however, will be restricted in their ability to follow hometown teams. Technology will be used to block access to local games to preserve television rights. Also excluded are games broadcast on television nationally. The NBA League Pass package costs $179 and will give subscribers access to the regular-season games both online and through cable or satellite, according to a league announcement scheduled for Monday. However, fans can only sign up through a cable or satellite provider, and the broadband service is not available separately. The league said it is also offering a free, ad-supported service giving fans highlights of top plays, news conferences, interviews and other coverage. The package will be available only in the United States. A separate service is being sold in China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Nearly 90 regular-season and playoff games will be available, most of them live. The games will carry commentary in Chinese. The NBA represents the latest professional league to expand its online offerings. For years, baseball has been selling Internet packages of live games with similar blackout technologies to preserve lucrative television deals. Last month, the NFL launched a service with Yahoo Inc. to show games live on computers outside North America. College sports are also making their way online. Baseball and football employ technologies that can pinpoint an individual's location by checking a computer's Internet address. Because the NBA is selling games through cable and satellite providers, the league will block games based on the provider's location. That means a New York fan will have Knicks and Nets game blacked out even when traveling to Los Angeles. The NBA said the service is available through EchoStar Communications Corp.'s DISH Network and DirecTV Group Inc. satellite systems and through most digital cable providers. </div> Link
I had a similar thing for the baseball season, its good if you simply enjoy watching basketball games. The down side is that your regional teams may be blacked out. I live in Iowa and love the twins but they dont show many games where I live and yet they were still blacked out on the internet because Iowa is in Minnesota's market.
<div class="quote_poster">NaKz Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">i hope they do somethin like this for australia...</div> me too, theres no nba to watch in australia.
Won't be doing this. If I want to catch a Bulls game, I'll just turn it over to Comcast when they're not on national TV. With the Lakers, I'm sure TNT, ESPN, and ABC will carry plenty of their games as well.
<div class="quote_poster">rip-city Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">me too, theres no nba to watch in australia.</div> Foxtel carries 2 or 3 games a week.
foxtel is too expensive man, I had it for a while but it just got to be too much but i really wish they would show more basketball in australia. if you other aussies want to watch it they have games showing sometimes at the crown sports bar in melbourne, thats where i go for my NBA, plus its free.
I think this a great idea for the NBA in terms of spreading their product on a global scale. They are obviosuly gonna have the ability to reach more people and to gain even more (if thats possible) popularity. Eventually, I think all major sports will end up doing this. I mean why not?
