Fans To Pick Tuesday-Night Game on NBA TV

By Andrew Lippe
The NBA’s
new multiplatform Fan Night initiative is giving fans the opportunity to vote
on NBA.com to select a game they want to watch on NBA TV. The game chosen will
air every Tuesday night during the 2008-09 season.
The upcoming
season also marks the beginning of Turner Sports’ new partnership with the NBA.
All digital assets of NBA TV, NBA.com, NBA League Pass, NBADLeague.com, and
WNBA.com are being managed by Turner Sports. “The
Turner infrastructure gives us the flexibility that we need to drive
innovation,” says Bryan Perez, SVP/GM of NBA Digital.
Besides the Fan Night
game, fans will also get to vote on the top 10 plays of the week, which will be
compiled into a video highlights package that will air on TV and online. “We
have married the infrastructure of both the Internet and the TV side,” Perez says.
For Fan
Night, fans vote on NBA.com, with four or five options to choose from. The top
vote-getting game will air on the network the following Tuesday night. The first
vote will begin Tuesday Oct. 28, the results to air on Tuesday Nov. 4.
“One of
our big goals coming out of customer research was to increase the level of fan
interactivity,” says Perez. “The challenge for us was, how to engage someone
online but really drive that through to a TV aspect.”
The Fan
Night initiative was an opportunity for the NBA to take full advantage of the
multiplatform aspect. “Once we can engage the fans through this particular
initiative,” says Perez, “my expectation and hope is that the fans lead us in
other directions.”
NBA TV
will air 96 live games this year, along with Fan Night games. Beginning
Saturday Nov. 1 with the Washington Wizards @ Detroit Pistons at 7:30 p.m. ET,
NBA TV will televise live games multiple days a week throughout the regular
season.