NEW YORK — Turner Broadcasting System and the NBA have reached a deal for managing the league’s digital assets, including NBA.com and NBA TV.
Financial terms of the deal were not announced, though it includes a profit-sharing arrangement and also required Turner to return its small stake in NBA TV to the NBA. The agreement runs through the 2015-16 NBA season and kicks in fully later this year.
A GM will be named for the unit, which will move from the NBA’s production studios in Secaucus, N.J., to Turner’s offices in Atlanta. It will be run by Turner Sports president David Levy and NBA COO Adam Silver.
The deal gives Turner day-to-day management of programming, technical and marketing at NBA.tv as well as operations of NBA.com, NBA League Pass subscription package and puts Turner’s award-winning NBA on-air talent on NBA TV. But the NBA will fully own the assets.
NBA commissioner David Stern said Thursday in a conference call with reporters that the NBA’s production facilities would continue to produce game and other content from Secaucus, as well as the international arm of the digital assets. But he said that the international unit might also be involved in some sort of joint venture in the future.
