Nike, LeBron Soar On ESPN360
Athletic Footwear Leader Is Sole Sponsor Of Opening NBA Doubleheader On Broadband Service
By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 10/31/2007 10:11:00 AM
Touting its new LeBron James campaign, Nike will be the sole sponsor on tonight’s NBA doubleheader simulcast on ESPN’s broadband portal.
ESPN tips off its 2007-08 game coverage tonight with the Dallas Mavericks, led by reigning MVP Dirk Nowitski visiting James’s Cleveland Cavaliers at 8 p.m. (ET), followed by the Denver Nuggets hosting the Seattle SuperSonics at 10:30 p.m.
The contests will be simulcast on ESPN360, the sports giant's broadband service that reaches some 17 million homes, as well as on NBA Mobile TV, marking the first exploitation of digital live game rights under the new eight-season, $7.4 billion deals ESPN and TNT signed with the league in late June. While the new contracts officially begin with the 2008-09 season, the NBA pushed up the carriers' digital rights by a season.
As is the case on the network, Nike will trumpet James’s fifth signature shows, the Zoom LeBron V on ESPN360, with the commercial featuring the aspirational copy : “I am LeBron James. You don't want to be me. You want to be better than me.”
In addition to the Nike spots, the pods within the simulcast doubleheader will also house promos for ESPN360 and other ESPN properties, according to a network spokesman.
ESPN plans to present live simulcasts of all 72 of its NBA telecasts on ESPN360.com, which was relaunched in September as a home for some 2,500 live sporting events over the next year. In addition, ESPN Mobile TV will simulcast the games and ESPN NBA studio programming, while ESPN.com will feature live and on-demand video of ESPN pro hoops studio fare.
TNT, which also gained game and other digital rights as part of its NBA deal, has opted not to simulcast live contests at this stage. Thus far, Turner Sports officials have discussed using broadband as a means of providing different camera angles or isolation shots of top players, but it has not yet delineated exactly its game plan for the new rights.
Meanwhile, Turner continues its discussions with the league about forming a strategic partnership under which it would operate the 12-million subscriber NBA TV service and NBA.com, among other digital holdings.
A Turner Sports spokesman said the programmer has not yet determined exactly what rights to utilize at this juncture –it didn’t exploit them with the TNT’s season-opener doubleheader on Oct. 30.
He noted, though, that its initial digital shot likely wouldn’t be made until the current negotiations conclude. “It will definitely be when, not if,” he said.
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