Nearly a decade after acquiring the Los Angeles Clippers from the NBA, Steve Ballmer has finally realized his dream of building a bigger and better television platform for the beloved basketball series.
Today Clipper is launching ClipperVision, a regional subscription streaming service that offers six channel options to watch the vast majority of the team’s home and away matches — more than 70 of the 84 regular season games. The service will cost $199 per season and is widely available in Southern California. Arcs first livestream of the service on October 22 with an away game against the Sacramento Kings.
One of the six broadcast channels will be dedicated to the team’s traditional linear television coverage via Bally Sports. Two more are dedicated to covering live games in Spanish and Korean – with the well-established Korean team out of a studio in Seoul.
Another brief is an alternate view of the game – similar to ESPN’s new role in “Monday Night Football” with Peyton and Eli Manning – nicknamed “Ballervision” that will feature NBA alumni Jamal Crawford, Baron Davis and others that cut right through as the game unfolds. They will also be joined by Palmer, who is well known for showing on the court about his love for the Clippers and basketball in general, periodically for assessment.
Ballmer, who acquired the team for $2 billion in 2014, brought the same level of energy to a presentation for reporters on ClipperVision and a dry run for the game “Ballervision” that aired October 9. Pearce gathered that evening in the Mid City Los Angeles studio space owned by Davis for training broadcast television as the team played a pre-season game against the Minnesota Timberwoles.
Palmer confirmed that he wanted to craft a multi-platform presentation of NBA games since he was still in his days number two to Bill Gates at Microsoft in the 1990s and 2000s. He sees Clippers’ content slicing and slicing as a form of “gimmicking” the viewing experience. He also finds it important to make Clippers games available to the younger generation of fans who don’t subscribe to cable.
“We are now going to change the sports viewing experience, and what you see here is what I would call the first release,” Palmer said on October 9.
The other two feeds also reflect trends in sports, fans, and technology. CourtVision will provide game coverage with augmented reality with real-time statistics and facts enhanced as the game develops. MascotMode is like a TikTok demo of the game with animations and emoji effects mixed in with key moments (for example, a flame shooting off a slam ball).
ClipperVision has built on the team’s research and development for the past four years with the Clippers CourtVision service that was available to approximately 1,000 people in beta starting in 2018.
Palmer admitted that it took a lot of intense negotiation with the team’s current regional sports partner Ballys (owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group) to obtain the rights to render ClipperVision feeds. One solution was to include Ballys’ regular linear feed into the show – making it a rare example of fans being able to purchase access to the team’s linear television games on a selective basis.
The Clippers will also break new ground for the NBA by becoming the first to make its dedicated coverage in Spanish and Korean widely available through the NBA subscription platform.
Palmer emphasized that bringing Clippers games into the future of streaming — albeit for a price — is key to keeping the next generation of fans engaged.
“We have a group of guys who cut or cut wires. They can’t be a Clipper fan today,” Palmer said. “If they’re lucky enough, they might go play every year. But they can’t watch our matches. So the idea of having a product that is more accessible and being able to do new things in it, those were the things that motivated me.”
At the same time, Palmer was not ready to move away from linear television. Not only did the Clippers renew a multi-year agreement with Ballys (which paved the way for the launch of ClipperVision) late last month, this year the team also sought a local television broadcast partner for the first time since 2009. Deal with KTLA-TV Los Angeles To carry a total of 15 games this season. As Clippers is pushing towards an expanded platform geared toward consumers, having the games ubiquitous for local audiences is a natural marketing move.
“We didn’t want to leave (linear) TV. It took a lot of negotiation,” Palmer said. “Now there is a way to market our games that doesn’t just come from Bally Sports.”
Crawford and Davis emphasized that younger NBA players are among those who feel the generational divide because they cannot easily watch Clippers games via smartphones or tablets. Crawford will be a regular broadcaster for the BallerVision television broadcast; He has taken on similar duties on TV broadcasts of NBA’s HooperVision featured in League Pass.
BallerVision will originate from different locations throughout the season. Crawford, Davis, Matt Barnes and Quentin Richardson will be regular members but may not be in the same location. Crawford is also joining the studio team for NBA on TNT and NBA TV this season.
“You don’t have to watch cable. You can do it right from your phone between school or basketball practice, or school and travel,” Crawford said. “And then you feel like you’re actually sitting there with Baron or Paul or someone else, like you’re just in the barbershop and with your guys, watching the match. That’s a different experience. And I think that’s the future. And it’s fitting that Steve and Clippers are the first to do that.” In the league. Because Steve is a forward thinker. There is a completely different way of consuming the game.”
ClipperVision channel feeds include Korean-language coverage of Clippers games covered by the broadcast team based in Seoul.
The broadcast will be called in Spanish by veteran NBA broadcaster Francisco X Rivera with commentator Roger Valdivieso and guests in studio in Los Angeles. In Seoul, the commentary team will feature Young Geum Jeong, former KBA champion Tae Seul Kim, and basketball reporters Hyun Il Cho and Dae Bum Sun.
The NBA has embraced the Clippers’ ingenuity for experimentation and innovation in their television offerings. The launch of ClipperVision comes on the heels of an overhaul of the NBA app’s subscription streaming service.
“We watch content offerings that show us the potential for direct consumer engagement comprehensively with the NBA audience,” says Chris Pinarco, executive vice president of the NBA.
“We encourage all of our teams and broadcast partners around the world to find opportunities to present content to users in different ways and use digital opportunities for personalization. In the long term, we believe technology and mobile devices will allow us to reinvent the live game experience.”
Palmer was excited during his October 9 presentation and told reporters that he wanted the technology to evolve into a place where the team could have cameras that would allow fans to watch the game from any given player’s point of view. The NBA has been credited with research and technology development for providing much of the “core technology” that powers ClipperVision. The team also works with live video streaming provider Kiswe.
“Now I’m thinking, how do you make this more metaverse-like,” Palmer said. “It’s just software as we like to say. How do you install it and let people enjoy the game in more, new and exciting ways. We’ll see where it goes and how fast. But it’s time to get started.”
The team is committed to the long-term support and development of ClipperVision. Palmer confirmed he has no plans to pull the plug quickly if subscriber growth isn’t strong in this NBA season, which begins October 20 with the Clippers’ hometown clash against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“We’re at the. end of the story. period,” Palmer said of his time frame for evaluating ClipperVision’s performance.
“This is our life. We give basketball games to people. If it doesn’t get done right the first time, guess what you do? You do it again. And you do it again, and you get better and better,” he said. “A month? A year? Not enough time. Five years, 10 years, we’ll get it right. There are some things at Microsoft that, frankly, took us over 10 years to fix. And they pay a lot of bills to a lot of shareholders right now. Patience is a virtue as long as you are willing to shake your ass.”
(At top photo: NBA alumni Baron Davis, Paul Pierce, Jamal Crawford, and Clippers head Steve Ballmer mix it up at the Oct. 9 BallerVision practice.)
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