In news that broke today, the Clippers agreed to a new deal with Fox Sports, and will remain on Fox Sports Prime Ticket.
Developing story — #Clippers and Fox Sports have agreed to new TV deal.
— Dan Woike (@DanWoikeSports) September 21, 2016
The Clippers are back on Fox Sports but will still be conducting in-market tests for new, innovative digital offerings on a trial basis. pic.twitter.com/oOFVM6Yn00
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) September 21, 2016
If you can’t read that tweet, here’s a transcription:
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The L.A. Clippers and Fox Sports Prime Ticket today announced an exclusive multi-year broadcast rights agreement between the team and the regional sports network, pending league approval. The terms for the agreement were not announced.
Prime Ticket will broadcast all regular season games not selected by a national broadcaster for exclusive telecast, first-round post-season Clippers games, plus selected pre-season games. All games televised by Prime Ticket will again be made available for streaming on FOX Sports GO to customers with a pay-TV subscription.
Further, the Clippers announced that the team will be conducting in-market tests for new, innovative digital offerings on a trial basis to a targeted number of fans.
“It is exciting for us to continue our relationship with FOX Sports Prime Ticket,” Clippers President of Business Operations Gillian Zucker said. “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.”
As Arash notes, Fox had been hemorrhaging Los Angeles content to Time Warner Cable, and this helps maintain their market presence. Plus, today’s Clippers are a much more valuable broadcast property than they have been throughout most of their time on Prime Ticket (indeed, most of their time in existence.)
After losing the Lakers, Dodgers, Galaxy and Sparks to TWC, Fox had to keep the Clippers to justify having two regional sports networks.
— Arash Markazi (@ArashMarkazi) September 21, 2016
Worth noting is the Fox Sports GO streaming option for verified subscribers, as well as the “in-market tests for new, innovative digital offerings on a trial basis to a targeted number of fans.”
That sounds new and shiny, although nebulously defined. It could be anything from VR to Twitter integration to select fans getting to grab a Zune out of Steve Ballmer’s trunk.
Though terms weren’t announced, it makes sense for FOX to preserve some L.A. content, and NBA rights are never a bad thing to have, barring a massive overpay.
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