(EPA)
The NBA and its TV partners are scrambling to make up for 16 missed games and an estimated $100 million in lost ad revenue as a result of the league’s 149-day lockout.
Rival networks that don’t air NBA games were able to poach advertisers that normally would buy time on nets that do carry the NBA, including Time Warner’s TNT/TBS, Disney’s ESPN and ABC, Madison Square Garden and the YES Network.
Now the league’s broadcasting partners are trying to woo back advertisers, including offering them attractive rates if they buy ad packages for the remainder of this season and into next year, ad executives said.
“They’re scrambling, but they’re also being humble,” said Jarrod Moses, the CEO of United Entertainment Group, which reps NBA advertisers. “They’re being apologetic and asking for forgiveness as they’re asking for the check.”
Moses said the NBA’s broadcast partners are dangling “futures” deals to some advertisers who commit to buying time during this season and the 2012-13 season. “There’ll be significant effort to create local promotions and on-site activations to make up for the . . . loss of income,” he said.
Still, the nets that carry the NBA may be hard pressed to entice advertisers who got sweetheart deals from rivals, especially young-male-skewed networks like Spike and MTV, he said.
While live sports is a strong corner of the TV ad market, the fourth-quarter scatter market — or ad time sold closer to the actual air date — has been weak, making it more difficult for NBA partners to pin down whatever money is still in play.
Although the first game will be played Dec. 25 at Madison Square Garden, broadcasters are still waiting for word on the NBA’s revised 2011-12 schedule, which likely won’t be released until next week at the earliest.
“Fourth quarter, there is not a lot of inventory, there’s not a lot of games,” Turner Sports President David Levy told The Post. “We’re focusing on first-quarter scatter, and we already have a strong base of NBA corporate advertisers.”
Advertisers spent some $805 million last season on TV ads during NBA games, according to Kantar Media. Some $103 million was spent during November and December alone across the big three ad partners — ABC, ESPN and TNT/TBS — according to Sports Business Journal.
Of course, some advertisers are eager to get back into the NBA game. One big sports marketer said her firm was pitched hard by rival sports programmers, including the National Hockey League, Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer, to replace canceled NBA games. The marketer said she switched NBA ad dollars to network TV and digital alternatives on a week-to-week basis while she waited for the lockout to end.
NBA officials didn’t immediately comment.