Could you imagine a world where you can just pay to watch the final five minutes of any NBA game whenever you want? It may soon become a reality.
During the Sports Business Innovation panel at CES 2017 in Las Vegas, NBA commissioner Adam Silver was asked to give his perspective on how fans could be viewing games in the next five years. Silver reflected on how much progress has been made already, from offering NBA League Pass, which gives any fan the opportunity to pay to watch any game they want throughout the season, to purchasing one game at a time.
As for where the league could be headed next, he hinted at offering a package where people can watch any game in crunchtime. “Certainly we’re going from a place where it was one price for an entire season of games,” Silver said, according to Diamond Leung of SportTechie. “Now just in the last two years, we’ve made single games available. But I think you’re going to get to the point where somebody wants to watch the last five minutes of the game, and they go click, they’ll pay a set price for five minutes as opposed to what they would pay for two hours of the game."
Silver has always been open to making tweaks, like weekday morning games or altering the playoff system, wherever he can. It has all been in an effort to improve the game for the fans. Like the aforementioned ideas, this one may never come to fruition, but it's clear that the NBA commissioner is always willing to listen to new suggestions.
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