Silver equals Gold

Adam silver, 37, Is one of the most powerful people in American basketball today. As someone who started as David Stern’s personal assistant, he now functions as the chief of staff for the N.B.A, and president of NBA entertainment, which dominates the league’s communication empire. In a visit to Tel-Aviv he unveils the next hot thing: NBA TV, a combination of television and internet.

Yariv Zur, Tel-Aviv Magazine

To borrow a metaphor from popular television, where “Party for five” was once described as “The best series you’re not watching right now”, Adam silver is the most influential person in the world of basketball you never heard of. Silver, 37, is the president of NBA Entertainment. NBA Entertainment is a subsidiary of the NBA, which controls all the television broadcasts from the NBA and WNBA. As president of the company, Silver is in charge of broadcast rights, still pictures, NBA magazines, player interviews and the internet site, which makes him one of the most powerful people in the world American sports and communication.

Silver grew up in a small peaceful town called Rye in the state of new-york, and while he played high-school basketball, he never thought he’d be involved in professional sports. After graduating from law school and spent some time as a congressional aide, he joined a law firm which focused on media business. In ’92 silver was appointed as David Stern’s personal assistant. He’s been there since, promoting the media empire of the best league in the world. He cane to Israel together with the Miami Heat, taking care to use to time to create initial contact with the local DBS company.

The biggest news Silver brings with him is the launching of a special NBA TV channel next week, together with the league’s tip-off, on November 2^nd. It’s going to be an innovative channel which is going to combine internet and television.

What are our chances of seeing this channel here in Israel?

“We are closely monitoring the technological developments in the area of television in Israel for the past years. Now, with satellite broadcasting coming to Israel, we’re thinking of showing the new channel through them.”

Does that mean that you started negotiations with the DBS company?

“I would say initial discussions. This one of the reasons I came to Israel. Once viewing packages (Tiering) is available in Israel, we will be able to give our viewers something like two games a day, and our new channel. We have her Arik Henig, which is the commissioner’s special assistant to help us with this, and we would love to see him broadcast again.”

What would American viewers get to see on this channel next week?

 “First of all, there wont be broadcasts of live games. The new channel, NBA.COM-TV will supply the information around the games. It’s not a coincidence it has the name of our web-site. We’re talking about a digital television channel which will show content very similar to what we have on the web. I think this is one of the first cases of an internet site which becomes a television channel, and not the opposite.”

How exactly is it going to work?

“The screen will look very similar to the site, with scores running on the bottom of the screen, with constant data and statistics fed to the viewers. We want that when a basketball fan comes home at night, he’ll open our channel, instead of having to wait in other channels until they get to cover the NBA. In our channel, he will get direct and updated information on the games, referalls to live broadcasts, and the magazines we produce.”

The means the channel will mainly concentrate on information

“Exactly. The aim of this channel is to promote the games being shown on our national and cable carriers. This will not be a channel you sit to watch constantly, but sort of a starting point which will give you the information before you start to see the game. At night we will be showing NBA highlights, both from that day’s games, and from our massive archive. Be it select play-off series, or Magic Johnson’s great moments. From noon ‘till the live broadcast starts, we will be showing the magazines we produce, some of which you see here in Israel, such as “NBA Action”. It’s possible that in the future we’ll be showing some international basketball too.”

Where do you see this channel going?

“Once we have the sufficient bandwidth, we will be able to achieve totally interactive television. Today on our web-site, the viewer can freeze a frame and send it as a postcard. In the future – You will be able to see a game, and with a click on your remote order the blouse that Patrick Ewing is wearing. The same if you like Pat Riley’s Armani suits.

In the more distant future, the viewer will have the option to be the director. We will be presenting him the feed from all the cameras, including audio feed from the team’s benches, and we he will be able to choose what to see – what the director chose, or one of the other cameras. That’s the future, and our new channel is a first step in that direction.”

Who will be able to enjoy the new channel?

“Initially, not a lot of house-holds. Since we’re talking about a digital channel, we’re limited with respect to bandwidth in cable. So we our initial audience are satellite viewers, which are subscribed to the NBA package, something like 3 million households. With time, we will be broadening this also outside the states.”

Lets talks a bit about basketball. Has the NBA recovered from the damage caused by the players strike?

“You know, You have to put in a good word for the players, who together with us made an effort to reach out to the fans and contact them. We had open training sessions, autograph signing event, players-fans meetings before games and similar events. Even tough it was a short season, the fans are back, ratings our back. Maybe we should have improved the connection with the fans sooner, but no doubt that helped us get the fans back. At the end of the season, no one suggested we put an asterisk on San-Antonio’s championship. Except for the Knicks fans, of course”.

One of the most surprising success stories of recent years is the WNBA. Were you surprised as well?

“This is really a big surprise beyond our wildest dreams. Three years ago, when we started the league, we anticipated an average of 5000 people per game. Today – the average is 10000. Who would have believed it? Not to mention that television rights, it filled a big gap in our broadcasting schedule. The summer was a ‘dead’ season for us, as far as basketball is concerned. No with the WNBA, we can give basketball fans quality games all year”