Q&A: The National Basketball Association (Interactive Services Division  

Brenda Spoonemore, vice president of interactive services for NBA Entertainment

In the second article in a series of questions and answers with heads of the new media/interactive divisions of major US sports properties, Rachael Church, editor of Sport and Technology, spoke to Brenda Spoonemore, vice president of interactive services for NBA Entertainment. Among the NBA's new media properties is its website NBA.com which is consistently ranked one of the top sports sites on the internet. The site was launched in November 1995 and averaged more than 1.8m daily visitors during the 2002-03 NBA season - an increase in traffic of more than 45% when compared to traffic to the site the previous year. The WNBA made history in May 2003 when it featured the first-ever webcast of a game in women's professional sports history by providing broadband video coverage of Detroit Shock versus Charlotte Sting.

What is your role at NBA Entertainment?

"In the NBA Entertainment arm we look after the broadcast relationship with NBATV, DVDs, the photos group and all the interactive side as well as grass roots events etc. We specifically work on the websites and the interactive platforms such as broadband, wireless and interactive TV as well as covering the leagues, the teams and international websites and ensuring that all of our internal decisions have the right interactive expressions in mind. For example, for a grassroots tour we need a presence online that allows fans around the country to find out when it is coming to their area and what kind of events will be there. We provide an interactive tour online for that. So in general, we cover broadband, wireless and interactive TV and make sure that all the internal constituents have their interactive extensions. Everything we do at NBA Entertainment has a technology element to it whether it be a communications or ticketing strategy or identifying things that are happening in fans' areas."

What is your current status in broadband media?

"We have seen broadband usage really spike in the last few years, and over the last season we saw it go up over 400% compared with the previous 18 months. Going into the 2002-03 NBA season we expanded our subscription package which had previously just been audio to NBA Inside Ticket which also included audio but also broadband footage of games, recaps around the league every night, expended games coverage once a week and video games coverage that we get in conjunction with NBATV. As NBATV is cutting their content, we're developing their programming so that it is shown online in a broadband way as well. Our editors for NBA.com and WNBA.com are the same editors for NBATV. So whenever we're developing programming, everything we do runs through this group so we're determining the right platforms for certain content."

What sets your interactive strategy apart from that of other sports leagues?

"Our strategy is unique in that it is really fully integrated with NBA Entertainment and the NBA in general. Everything we do, we think across these multiple channels. This means we are able to leverage our resources in a way that we wouldn't otherwise be able to do. The NBA.com and NBATV news desks are also integrated so if there's a player signing or particular games coverage coming up, we have a group that is pulling in that information and making sure it gets to NBATV and NBA.com. That's a very important piece of our strategy - we want to be really consistent about conveying our information to our fans across whichever medium is the most convenient for them, whether it is television, wireless or a newspaper."

What's happening on the wireless side of your new media strategy?

"We have WAP sites for both the NBA and WNBA and those include headlines, scores and upcoming games. We've also done some really neat programmes with SMS messaging - including during the draft allowing fans to sign up for an alert outlining the major trades. We introduced in-game wireless voting for the MVP of the All-Star Game in February and were so pleased with the results that in partnership with Verizon Wireless, we also did the same thing with the Conference Finals and then the Finals games. Fans were given the ability to really make their votes count."

Do you have any plans to introduce video on your wireless services?

"There's two ways this can be done - through push or pull. Many devices currently have the ability to pull users to a site and then allow them to view video that way through those phones. More importantly, over the next 18 months we're going to see more push technology getting video clips out to those phones and giving people the opportunity to sign up for certain highlights or insider clips. That's something we are prepared to do although the deal we are looking into is not yet signed."

How would you split revenues with the carrier for those services?

"That's an interesting question as there are a couple of different models out there. One we're looking at is more of a sponsorship/marketing model. That benefits the provider in that it is incentivising the fan with the phone to be using more bandwidth, which helps the provider's business overall. A second model might be that some of that content will come packaged into a subscription, but we've not yet made a decision on which of those two ways to proceed with."

Are there plans to move forward your WNBA broadband services following their initial success?

"The WNBA broadband product is similar to the NBA product except that it did include live video of 12 games as well as the audio and broadband highlight packages. We've been very pleased with the usage over the summer and the ability to increase the distribution of the WNBA games domestically and internationally. That allows us both build the broadband video subscription as a package but also to increase awareness of the WNBA. I'd be highly surprised if we didn't do something similar to this next season."

What are your plans for interactive TV?

"We've done a couple of things in interactive TV over the past several years with various partners including Turner this past year domestically. There are a couple of different technologies we can use at NBATV, depending greatly on the distribution. There's one type of interactive software we use with the satellite providers and a different kind of overlay for the cable operators. Right now we have our stats feed in an XML format which we also feed to our websites and wireless services and broadband products so it's very efficient. We envisage more interactive services being introduced once additional distribution deals on NBATV are announced."

What are your main business drivers moving forwards?

Domestically one of our main drivers is still online ticket sales. We think about that every time we put together the home page or create new sweepstakes. You can buy tickets online for every team or if someone isn't comfortable purchasing online we also provide a 1-800 number. But our fans seem to be very technology-literate and comfortable purchasing online. We're increasingly seeing the percentage of tickets sales online going up as a percentage of overall ticket sales and we're able to target fans with offers based on their team preferences. Tune in is another important driver domestically as well as internationally so it might mean producing content that drives tune in to a particular game that we know is going to be televised."

How important will technology continue to be to the NBA and WNBA over the next few years?

"From commissioner David Stern on down, technology is a key piece of everything that we do. In general we will continue to put technology at the centre of each of our business units and match up new technologies and new functionalities across all of those units and by doing that, keep all of them relevant in their field. It's about seeing technology as a tool and being aware of everything that's in the toolbox, and using the right tools in the right parts of our business as well as being really smart about how that works. The way that we've integrated the league and team sites allows us to take advantage of new technologies quickly without any restructuring of staff or our business."

The next Q& A will feature Jeffrey Pollack, managing director of broadcasting and new media at NASCAR Digital Entertainment.

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