The start of the 2016-17 NBA season is just over a month away, and fans of the LA Clippers won't have to worry about not being able to watch their team.
According to Broderick Turner the L.A. Times, the team has reached an agreement with Fox to keep the games on Fox Sports Prime Ticket as well as digitally.
The deal will earn the Clippers around $50 million to $55 million per season — which just about doubles the $25 million annually Prime Ticket paid the team in the previous deal — according to officials who were not authorized to speak publicly about the contract. The Clippers and Fox agreed to a six-year deal, with both sides having options to open new discussions after two seasons.
The Clippers will also offer digital products to their fans, something that Clippers owner Steve Ballmer has yearned to do to give his fans a new-age experience of innovative offerings. It will be on a trial basis and “targeted to number of fans,” the Clippers said in a news release.
The Clippers have always lacked viewership in Los Angeles as they are sometimes viewed as “the second basketball team in L.A.,” but tech-savvy owner Steve Ballmer's goal is to ultimately bridge the gap between the in-home viewing of the games and the streaming of the games (whether by computer, phone, or tablet). As Turner detailed in his piece, an L.A. Times story from June of this year showed that the Clippers were viewed in around 57,000 homes in a Los Angeles market that includes over five million TV homes. Clearly, there's room for improvement.
Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker spoke about the deal in a Wednesday release.
“It is exciting for us to continue our relationship with Fox Sports Prime Ticket,” said Zucker. “Our new partnership provides us the ability to pursue Steve Ballmer’s vision of developing revolutionary digital products while continuing to supply our fans with the comprehensive Clippers coverage and distribution Fox Sports Prime Ticket has provided for over 20 years.”
The Clippers tip off their regular season on October 27th against the team that eliminated them in the postseason, the Portland Trailblazers.
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