One of the biggest questions around the offseason is how exactly fans in the region can watch Detroit Pistons games without shelling out for cable TV.
The league is still woefully behind when it comes to streaming, as local games on NBA League Pass are often blacked out, which means fans have to either pay loads each month for cable, or turn to illegal streams, which the league has vowed to crack down on next season.
No one wants to watch a game on a sketchy stream that constantly gets interrupted by pop-up ads for porno and crypto currency, but younger fans aren’t getting cable, and you can’t expect people to pay for NBA League Pass when their favorite team is going to blacked out most of the time.
The Utah Jazz have come up with a bold solution that the Detroit Pistons should absolutely replicate.
Detroit Pistons need to follow bold new plan by the Utah Jazz
Yesterday, the Utah Jazz announced that they would offer their own streaming package to fans, which is a much-better deal than anything currently offered by the NBA.
Right now, NBA League Pass costs around $99, but like I said, local teams are blacked out, so you have to be a big fan of the other 29 teams (or live outside of the region) for it to have any value.
The package the Jazz are offering allows fans to stream all Jazz games for $125.50, which not only includes live and on-demand access to every Utah game, but also two tickets to a Jazz home game.
This seems like a great way to not only boost local viewership but get a few more fans to home games where they will undoubtedly spend money.
I’ve never understood blackouts from a league that is constantly trying to expand, as it just leaves out local fans and sends them elsehwere, as most people aren’t going to pay upwards of $75 to 100 per month for cable just to watch NBA games.
But if they can pay $125, get all of their team’s games AND get two tickets to a game? Why not?
Fans of the Detroit Pistons would jump all over an offer like this, as many fans are only interested in their local team anyway.
The Utah Jazz played it smart here and I expect many smaller-market teams will follow, though we’ll see if the league has something to say about this, as much of their revenue comes from rights on television.
Streaming is not the future, it is the present and more teams need to think of their fans and make these types of deals available or further risk alienating a demographic that is never going back to cable TV.