Suns Owner plans to make it free to watch over the air on local channels and direct-to-consumer streaming services

[vnzla81]

Respect, I wish the other billionaires were not as greedy and did the same, not a better way to grow the game than by showing it the locals instead of blacking them out

I mean it's crazy that I pay for league pass and I can't watch Pacers, stupid s***

[Cubs231721]

The ESPN story says a price point for the streaming service has not been determined, so that part will likely not be free.

I'm not sure I'd classify this as a benevolent decision either. There's a lot of confusion on the best way to monetize the local TV rights with the old model dying. It is likely a good long-term business decision to focus on growth for a little bit while that is sorted out. Especially for a new owner who can pass it off as I do things differently now that I'm in charge.

With that said, I'm hoping this happens for the Pacers as well!

[sav]

One of the reasons that the NFL is so popular is that fans can watch most (if not all) of their local team’s games on tv for free. The NBA should learn from that.

[Sandman21]

One of the reasons that the NFL is so popular is that fans can watch most (if not all) of their local team’s games on tv for free. The NBA should learn from that.

How? You really can't compare the NFL to the NBA broadcasting wise when one league's teams are only playing once a week and the other could play 2 or 3 games in that same week.. Where are you going to find a station in Indiana with a strong enough signal (and can broadcast in at least 720P) that has 82+ nights open to broadcast the Pacers over the air? The only station I can think of that could potentially meet that goal is WNDY23 and I'm not sure how strong their signal is.

[sav]

How? You really can't compare the NFL to the NBA broadcasting wise when one league's teams are only playing once a week and the other could play 2 or 3 games in that same week.. Where are you going to find a station in Indiana with a strong enough signal (and can broadcast in at least 720P) that has 82+ nights open to broadcast the Pacers over the air? The only station I can think of that could potentially meet that goal is WNDY23 and I'm not sure how strong their signal is.

Just broadcast a game of the week on regular tv, and maybe an extra game now and then. That will help the fans get familiar with the team. Put the rest on Bally or Fox or whatever.

Back in the ABA days, channel 4 would cover Pacer games. They probably covered 20-30 games a year and everyone in Central Indiana knew the Pacers and their key players.

[BillS]

Just broadcast a game of the week on regular tv, and maybe an extra game now and then. That will help the fans get familiar with the team. Put the rest on Bally or Fox or whatever.

Back in the ABA days, channel 4 would cover Pacer games. They probably covered 20-30 games a year and everyone in Central Indiana knew the Pacers and their key players.

Back in the ABA days channel 4 didn't have network programming that needed pre-empting to show a game.

You could possibly do this with a digital secondary channel, but programming packages wouldn't have it (for those still using ithem and you'd need to make a deal with your streaming service to allow free games.

[Sandman21]

Back in the ABA days channel 4 didn't have network programming that needed pre-empting to show a game.

You could possibly do this with a digital secondary channel, but programming packages wouldn't have it (for those still using ithem and you'd need to make a deal with your streaming service to allow free games.

For the most part, the local subchannels are available on at least on Comcast, but the problem is the digital secondary channels in the Indy market are mostly still broadcasting in 480i (and depending on the station, some of those 480i broadcast video quality are complete trash).

https://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?mktid=33

There's exactly ONE HD capabie channel in the market that potentially could be available and it's WNDY23, and who knows how far their signal goes across the state.