• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, September 9, 2008

The NBA, continuing its embrace of new media and its possibilities, will allow fans to choose which game its NBA TV network carries each Tuesday this season. The fan voting and ultimate "winning" broadcast will be overseen and executed by Turner, which is in the first season of a deal to manage the league-owned network.

 

The voting will occur on NBA.com each week, with the first "fan-command game" on Nov. 4. The 96 games a year NBA TV carries are simulcasts of local broadcasts. The network does not produce its own broadcasts, which allows the network to easily tinker with its Tuesday schedule and offer what it's billing as "Fan Night."

Turner's new management deal with the NBA also includes oversight of NBA.com and NBA League Pass, where subscribers can pay to view out-of-market games. (Turner also manages the Web properties for NASCAR and the PGA.)

There are some limits to the fan selection. Each team can only appear on the network nine times, so when the quota is used, certain Tuesday games may be struck from the ballot. Also, games will be blacked out in local markets, so it would not make sense for a Cleveland fan to vote for his or her team's game. However, it allows him or her to vote for a game involving a popular team they would like to see.

Digital-tier network NBA TV has been around for a decade, but failed to gain the wide distribution it once coveted. This led to the management deal with Turner. Turner will handle sales for the network, and will help to boost reach.

Terms of the deal are unclear, although at some level, it involves revenue-sharing.

At least for one week, the network is expected to receive wide reach through an agreement in which cable operators will be able to offer NBA TV free to customers for the first week of the season.

The Turner/NBA deal could be a blueprint for the much-discussed possibility that the NFL Network, which has also struggled to gain distribution, might link with ESPN.

Bryan Perez, the general manager of NBA Digital, said: "Fans voting online to consistently program a major national sports network pushes the boundaries of sports digital media."

Turner itself carries an "NBA Thursday" block of two NBA games on its TNT outlet.