NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Sees D2C Play as a Key League Initiative By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Thursday, October 21, 2021 - 10:37 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
Story Highlights
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver laid out a vision for league production and distribution at the SportsBusiness Journal's World Congress of Sports that will see the league engage with fans in new ways and, most importantly, on new devices and services.
Probably the biggest issue for us right now is we are a sport that's heavily on cable which has had enormous amount of disconnects over the last decade, he said. Something like 20 percent fewer homes receive cable, but it's much worse than that and is closer to something like 30% fewer viewers because many people are just using broadcast or cable connection to get broadband.
Part of that transition will also require a change in how events are produced as the goal will be to offer more personalization something that has been lacking to date due to the functionality limits on cable set-top boxes.
High definition has changed everything but other than that, it's still essentially a standard broadcast, says Silver. And part of the limitation was of course technology. It wasn't that the great broadcasters and distributors out there didn't want to change it, but they were locked in. And I think as we now move to more of a direct to consumer model what will come with that is personalization and customization.
Part of the urgency is because fans in the coveted 18-34 demo are especially disengaged from relying on a cable set-top box to get their content. Instead, they are leaning into streaming services.
You could argue that the bundle is just being recreated through these streaming services, he said. But putting that aside, I think at least for now, clearly the bundle is broken.
What is the solution? Silver said that as the NBA moves into the direct to consumer market, they would very much like to have their digital rights.
My long-term view is that we need to be in the direct to consumer business, he said. Exactly how it manifests itself I'm not sure and it may be that in certain cases we're part of multi-sport offerings. In other cases, it may be an NBA standalone [service] as we have now with our League Pass product.
It seems pretty clear that's the direction and I think that's what our fans are going to demand, says Silver. They want deeper, richer, more personalized content, and we have to respond to the market.
The great news for everybody, he added, is that people of all ages are devoting more time than ever to watching a screen.
They're watching streaming services and whatever they can watch on their phone, he said. We're a little bit caught in the switches right now and we'll work through that with our partners. And I think that where we end up will be a much better place. But we're going to have to work through that transition.
Helping in those personalization efforts will be the use of smartphones and other devices that offer new ways to tell stories.
We're learning how to produce events in a very different way, much less expensively, much more intimately, says Silver. What we'll see now in the sports industry is people rethinking how they can create some incredible content. In some cases, it's using iPhones or smartphones so intimacy can come through. There's a huge desire and demand for deeper content from our players and from the activities around the league. I think it's going to take us in a whole new place, especially as we move to more, to a direct to consumer relationship.
Silver also discussed sports gambling and its ability to also drive fan engagement. The biggest issue is that without federal oversight of sports gambling anyone looking to get serious about it on a national level quickly will find themselves dealing with dozens of entities.
Roughly 30 states have some form of legalized sports betting and if you are a content creator provider like we are you're dealing with 30 different jurisdictions which is a bit of a trap sometimes, he said. You can have somewhat of a race to the bottom where no jurisdiction wants to be overly restricted or too heavily regulated because then people go elsewhere. You see that a little bit in DC, we're its more regulated than in Virginia. So, I do think there should be national framework here. I don't think it's on the top of anybody's agenda in Congress right now, but I think we would be better off in a few years to legalize sports betting.
He points to how European soccer leagues which have made the transition from betting parlors to online gambling which offers safeguards against irregularities and corruption.
Online people have to identify themselves and they're using credit cards, he says. And just like with insider trading, computers are highly sophisticated and if they're detecting irregular activity the flags go off and they can tell leagues or other governing bodies. There's a lot of bad that could happen from this but, on balance, you can't turn the clock back. I think we're a lot better off with a regulated, transparent framework.
All of the efforts around personalization, gambling, and next-gen services are focused on one thing: making sure NBA fans are more connected than ever.
[All the leagues] need to focus on this in our own way but we really need to find ways to make sure that coming generations of fans aren't just fantasy fans or fans looking at highlights or what our players are doing off the court, he said. We want them to make an appointment to say there is a game on tonight at nine o'clock and I want to be part of that experience.
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
09/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
09/10/2026
September 10 2026, 06:00 (PDT) Dolby Expands Dolby OptiView Platform with New Capabilities at IBC 2026
New Sports Intelligence helps providers better unders...
08/10/2026
Modern venues have come a long way since the tinny, echoing audio of the mid 20t...
08/10/2026
ESPN's first Super Bowl production will stream in English and Spanish on Disney+, while the ESPN App carries the full slate of game, ManningCast, studio, an...
08/10/2026
From high-school videoboards to War Eagle Productions, the Opelika native is learning how to lead shows and capture big moments
The future of live sports produ...
08/10/2026
The Television Academy and Prime Video have announced a six-year agreement making Prime Video the exclusive global home of the Emmy Awards beginning with the 20...
08/10/2026
Techex will exhibit at NAB Show New York 2026 (Booth 623, Javits Center, October...
08/10/2026
X Games has announced the appointment of Steve Rogers as Chief Operating Officer. Rogers previously served as COO of World Supercross and spent nearly a decade ...
08/10/2026
Fonn Group has appointed Trevor Spielmann as Sales Director for Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Spielmann joins from EVS, where he held sales and business de...
08/10/2026
The flagship program will originate from major PG events with a four-camera production, live distribution across PGTV, social platforms
Perfect Game is bringin...
08/10/2026
Innovation rarely happens in a vacuum. More often, it happens at the point of collision: when worlds that have run on separate tracks begin to converge. That is...
08/10/2026
For decades, the production and broadcast services business has run on a familia...
08/10/2026
Uplynk, Zixi, BroadView Software, and Grass Valley have published The IP Converg...
08/10/2026
The NFL has announced the return of the Big Data Bowl, the league's analytics competition, now in its ninth year and again powered by AWS. Registration is o...
08/10/2026
Eutelsat has renewed its partnership with T l diffusion d'Alg rie (TDA), Algeria's national broadcasting network operator, for continued distribution of...
08/10/2026
Disney will livestream Super Bowl LXI on February 14, 2027, alongside the game's broadcast on ESPN and ABC. All Disney subscribers in the United States wi...
08/10/2026
RHStv and Red House Streaming have announced an expansion of their partnership w...
08/10/2026
Gray Media has announced a distribution agreement with TEGNA and DAZN to simulca...
08/10/2026
SVG readers can save 10% on registration and receive a complimentary Solutions H...
08/10/2026
PROTON Camera Innovations GmbH has been named a recipient of a 2026 Technology a...
08/10/2026
Industry leaders discuss real-world cloud workflows for live game production, pl...
08/10/2026
The next-gen audio technology joins Dolby Vision as part of Apple TV's immersive F1 experience...
08/10/2026
David France, Jesse Short Bull, Mato Wayuhi, N. Bird Runningwater, Jodi Archambau, Jhane Myers, Paul McGuire, Amber Morning Star Byars, Holly Macarro, Nick Tils...
08/10/2026
Dynamic panning plug-ins get an upgrade
Sound Particles have just announced major updates for two of their popular dynamic panning plug-ins. Energy Panner 2...
08/10/2026
New expandable instrument boasts full DMNO engine
UDO Audio have just announced the upcoming release of a new, expandable synth that packs the power of the ...
08/10/2026
Two new subwoofers added to monitoring line-up
ADAM Audio's monitoring range has just been expanded with two new DSP-equipped subwoofers, the Sub8 PRO a...
08/10/2026
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({ content_source:......
08/10/2026
Calrec gives broadcasters freedom of choice at NAB Show New York We're looking forward to meeting up with you all at NAB New York on 21st-22nd October.
Cal...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Globecast, a leading provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, will showcase its next generation of media orchestration services at NAB S...
08/10/2026
Clear-Com played a critical role in the production communications infrastructure for Rock in Rio 2026, one of the world's largest and most recognized music...
08/10/2026
Sohonet Launches ClearView Rush: A Leap Forward in Studio Review, Built for Crea...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Ikegami announces a major expansion to its range of broadcast-quality live production cameras. Scheduled for introduction on Ikegami booth 708 at NAB New York, ...
08/10/2026
Calrec will be located at Booth 444.
Freedom to choose
The media landscape is evolving quickly, and the broadcasters best placed for what comes next will be...
08/10/2026
LiveU has announced that CRD Audiovisuel relied on LiveUs LU900Q intelligent production unit, with built-in native LiveU IQ (LIQ ) connectivity, to deliver live...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
08/10/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Sees D2C Play as a Key League Initiative By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
