NBA commissioner Silver weighs in on TV dispute
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he’s “incredibly sympathetic to those fans that live in Colorado” due to the ongoing Altitude TV-Comcast dispute, which has left the Nuggets and Avalanche off air to the majority of Denver television viewers.
At Silver’s annual state of the league address Saturday, the commissioner said he would met with owners Stan and Josh Kroenke over the impasse while in Chicago and that they’re “extraordinarily frustrated as well.”
“It’s a bad situation for everyone, and I’m incredibly sympathetic to those fans that live in Colorado and haven’t been able to get those games,” Silver said. “Coming out of All-Star (Weekend), certainly Bill Koenig (head of NBA media) and others in the league office will be redoubling their efforts to try to find a path forward.
“The league’s involvement has been to try to be helpful to both sides,” Silver said. He added: “I think in terms of an owner’s obligation, ultimately, all of our obligations are to the fans. I think that’s absolutely clear. Having said that, that isn’t necessarily the answer to the question as to what the terms should be distributing those games going forward.”
Altitude hasn’t aired on Comcast or Dish Network since their contracts expired at the end of August. Altitude did, however, reach a multiyear agreement with DirecTV on Oct. 31 to resume sports programming. In November, Altitude Sports filed a lawsuit against Comcast alleging violations of federal antitrust laws. Comcast filed a motion in January to dismiss the suit.
“I think this relates really to some of the other questions that have been asked, that there’s a lot happening right now, transformationally within the media market,” Silver said. “And I think that, the (regional sports networks) are sort of resetting in terms of their business models. I think the teams are re-thinking what the best ways are to distribute our games, to reach the most number of fans.”