The Los Angeles Clippers have announced a new, direct-to-consumer streaming platform called ClipperVision. The streaming platform will air more than 70 games live in-market in the 2022-23 season. The service will provide Clippers fans with six different streams, including ClipperVision in both Korean and Spanish, and three of the streams will also be available to fans out-of-market and internationally on NBA League Pass
“I have wanted to create a product like ClipperVision since the day I came to the Clippers. Years of effort, hard work and development have led up to its launch,” Clippers Chairman Steve Ballmer said in a statement. “ClipperVision’s augmented reality and interactivity will let us transform the experience our fans have watching games, and provide them with more platforms to watch the Clippers.”
ClipperVision will cost fans $199.99 for the entire 2022-23 season, which comes out to under $17 per month. That will give fans access to the six different streams for 70+ regular season games, a free limited-edition LA Clippers-branded jacket, as well as regular season access to Bally Sports+.
“You can watch the traditional broadcast,” Ballmer continued. “You can watch what we call ShotIQ, the broadcast but with other advanced statistics including, most importantly, probability any player will make a shot at any time based upon statistical analysis — who’s guarding me, what play are we running, etc. We have another way you can watch — I think we’re just calling it Mascot Mode. Think emojis, emoticons going off. Maybe good for adults, probably even better for some kids. We’ll have a Spanish language broadcast, we’ll have a Korean language broadcast, and we’ll have a broadcast we call BallerVision where guys can kind of — the way that Jamal Crawford describes it, which doesn’t apply to me in any way — it’s like guys sitting in the barbershop waiting for a haircut, watching the game and talking.”
Here are the six different streams provided on ClipperVision:
* BallerVision – BallerVision will feature live commentary from some of Clipper Nation’s biggest and most well-known personalities — Jamal Crawford, Baron Davis, Paul Pierce, Quentin Richardson, Matt Barnes, Ryan Gomes, and Marcus Camby — along with guest appearances from Steve Ballmer and celebrity Clippers fans.
Here’s a look at the BallerVision stream on ‘ClipperVision.’
In this sample, Steve Ballmer is joined by former Clippers Jamal Crawford, Baron Davis, and Paul Pierce: pic.twitter.com/xgyMO1sPxL
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 17, 2022
* Traditional Clippers Broadcasts – The app will provide access to live game streams from Bally Sports SoCal and KTLA featuring traditional on-air talent and graphics.
* CourtVision powered by AWS – Fan-favorite augmented reality streams are back. The CourtVison stream, similar to ShotIQ Mode in the Clippers CourtVision Beta, will carry over augmented graphics for real-time shot probability, statistics, and more.
* CourtVision Mascot Mode powered by AWS – This stream will feature new and enhanced animations, graphics, and special effects added in real-time with machine learning, an expansion of the similar mode from Clippers CourtVision.
* ClipperVision in Korean – The Korean-language stream on ClipperVision will be the first Korean-language commentary available OTT in the L.A. market, and it will be called live from Korea by commentator Yong-Gum Jeong, former basketball player and Korean Basketball League champion Tae-Sool Kim, and basketball reporters Hyun-Il Cho and Dae-Bum Son. Korean-language streams will also be available to fans across the United States and internationally, including in Korea, via NBA League Pass, another first.
* ClipperVision en Español – The Spanish-language stream will be hosted by veteran broadcaster Francisco X. Rivera. Experienced analyst Roger Valdivieso will take the commentator chair along with an extensive list of invited guests. ClipperVision en Español is the first team direct-to-consumer platform produced specifically for a Spanish-speaking audience and it will also be available to fans across the United States and internationally on NBA League Pass.
Here’s a look at the Korean and Spanish streams on ‘ClipperVision.’ pic.twitter.com/LWmOLOclWJ
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) October 17, 2022
BallerVision, ClipperVision en Español, and ClipperVision in Korean will also be available to fans out-of-market and internationally on NBA League Pass
The most intriguing stream appears to be BallerVision, where former Clippers will sit down to talk through games, similar to ESPN’s ‘Manningcast’ with Peyton and Eli Manning during, ‘Monday Night Football.’
“What we’re trying to do is think about, ‘How do we transform the experience our fans can have watching the game? Where can we do things that add?’ In the new arena, what do we want to do? We want to make things a little more intense. We want to make it a little bit more sensible to stay at your seat cheering. We want to enhance that. We got some crazy ideas about how to use chips and seats and controllers to enhance the way you interact, watch the game, get rewarded for cheering loudly. We’ll see where we all shake out.
“Most of our fans will actually never walk in the building. Most fans are fans through the broadcast or through clips after, and with ClipperVision we’re asking ourselves, ‘How do we change the experience?’”
Fans who have previously used Clippers Courtvision will be familiar with ClipperVision. It certainly brings a whole new life to fans eager to watch Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and the team’s pursuit of its first NBA Championship.
For Ballmer, the idea to give the Clippers their own, true home where fans can watch has been a long-time coming.
“I basically said to Gillian [Zucker] a year, two years ago, ‘We have to do this.’ That’s nonnegotiable. Now, I hope we can stay on cable, too. But we’re gonna do this because it’s the future. Now, over time, is it possible that other people will distribute the product? Sure. I mean if, I dunno, Amazon or Netflix said, ‘Hey we’ll pay you a bunch of money and we’ll distribute it’ — right now we have a Bally deal — we’d be open-minded. The thing I know we need to do is define the experience of watching basketball. Nobody’s gonna care more about that than we are. We used — the court technology we use comes from the league, it comes from an outside vendor called Kiswe. It comes from Second Spectrum who builds analytic software, so that will be the way people consume basketball whether it’s distributed from us direct, Bally or some internet streaming partner.”
Subscribers can stream live games in-market and access a video on demand (VOD) library directly at home, online, on their phone, or on the go from their computer, phone, and other connected devices without a cable subscription. ClipperVision is powered by the NBA’s new integrated digital platform, which also runs the new NBA app.
The tough part for Steve Ballmer and the Clippers will be affordability. At $199.99, ClipperVision has a bit of a steep price. Just last month, the NBA announced a 50 percent price decrease in its League Pass packages, which have a number of options available to watch out-of-market games.
Originally $199, League pass for the entire 2022-23 season is now available for fans at just $99.99. The $250 version of League Pass, which allows for commercial-free streaming on multiple devices, is now $129.99. Neither of these League Pass packages include any in-market games. The league does offer a Team Pass to watch all games from a single team at $89.99. For only $10 more, however, you get to watch all teams.
“I wanted to make the product at an affordable price that also would keep it a sensible business proposition for us,” Ballmer said of the price tag. “My general philosophy on pricing anything is to keep it as low as you can subject to the constraint that it’s gotta stay a good business because otherwise you won’t invest in it. In the new arena for example, if you want one of the premium premium seats, you will pay a premium premium price. If you want to sit up in the top, we want to have some seats in the building that are affordable.”
The difference here will be the uniqueness of ClipperVision, something we’ve never seen in the NBA universe yet. How will Clippers fans react to the $199.99 price tag for a little over 70 games? Is a fun, high quality stream featuring Steve Ballmer and former Clippers Jamal Crawford, Baron Davis, and others enough to entice fans to join? Will it be the CourtVision mode with ShotIQ or the Mascot mode for kids that gets fans to buy in? Only time will tell.
The LA Clippers first live stream will be Saturday, October 22nd against the Sacramento Kings.
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