TNT, ESPN Take Aim at Hoops Fans

Cable World, Oct 14, 2002

Byline: JON LAFAYETTE

With basketball season starting up at the end of the month, the NBA's two national cable outlets, TNT and ESPN, are launching new promotional efforts designed to get viewers to dribble over dribbling.

Under a new $2.4 billion rights deal signed earlier this year by AOL Time Warner and Walt Disney Co., the bulk of the NBA's national regular season telecasts will appear on cable. On Thursday nights, just about the only basketball games on TV will be on TNT. Now the networks' job is to tell viewers where to go to relieve their basketball jones.

Beginning this week, TNT will be touting a whole new Thursday night, which begins with former NBA star Charles Barkley's new talk show, Listen Up! Charles Barkley With Ernie Johnson. Though the show is expected to explore more than roundball, the program should create a smooth lead-in, both for TNT's basketball pregame show and for the NBA doubleheader that follows it.

Jeff Gregor, TNT SVP of sports marketing and programming, said that during the fourth-quarter launch period, TNT will be spending more than $1 million to promote its Thursday night lineup, and that doesn't include the promotional spots on TNT.

Naturally, TNT ads are being placed on many of parent AOL Time Warner's media outlets, ranging from CNN, Cartoon Network and Airport Channel to Sports Illustrated and Entertainment Weekly. But the network is also buying ad space in ESPN The Magazine, The Sporting News and USA Today. There are outdoor ads in New York, Los Angeles and Atlanta as well, plus radio in New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Dallas and San Antonio.

"It's important for us to get the message out to our viewers that the NBA is on TNT Thursday night," Gregor said. "We have a six-year deal, and we want to make sure that we seed our franchise right off the bat, so we're taking the necessary promotional weight to get that message out in the marketplace."

The ads begin as part of an image campaign, but they will be evolving into a topical campaign, highlighting both the guests due to appear with Barkley on his talk show, as well as the teams that will be matching up in the doubleheader.

The campaign uses the old Heat Wave song "Boogie Night," with a minor alteration in the lyrics: "boogie night" to "Thursday night."

TNT is also sending promotional materials out to its affiliates. "We have created customized spots" that operators can run to tell subscribers what channel to tune into to catch the games, Gregor said.

Meanwhile, ESPN, which hasn't broadcast NBA games since the 1980s, last week began to run spots calling itself "the new home of the NBA." ESPN's games air Wednesdays and Fridays.

The spots, running on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic and ESPNews, depict NBA players and ESPN personalities literally living together as a family in a home. NBA commissioner David Stern and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban make appearances.

Print and outdoor ads feature Yao Ming, the 7-foot-5-inch top draft choice from China sharing a bunk bed with the much-shorter ESPN announcer Mike Tirico.

The two networks are contractually obligated to promote one another, with EPSN promoting TNT's Thursday night games and TNT promoting ESPN's Friday night lineup. "It keeps an NBA story line fresh from a programming and a tune-in standpoint," TNT's Gregor said. "There are other interactive elements that we're working on with the NBA that will be jointly shared between ESPN and TNT, but those programs haven't been completely fleshed out yet."

Meanwhile, In Demand has begun marketing its out-of-market game pact, the NBA League Pass.

In Demand will offer fans a few previews from Oct. 9 through Nov. 5. At the same time, it is offering an Early Bird price to subscribers who sign up first. They'll get a $20 discount and pay $159 for the full season.

THE NEXT QUESTION:

*Whatever happened to the basketball channel AOL and the NBA agreed to launch jointly?

*Will TNT's exclusivity on Thursday night lead to higher prices for its ad inventory?