This confuses me, how can a nba team negotiate a tv contract with a cable company? What exactly does the cable company get in return? It can't be exclusive rights is it? Does this mean that direct tv can't show the lakers on tv?
In the early 70's, it was pretty small. Over the last 2-3 decades, Detroit, Boston and San Francisco metro areas fell behind Miami metro are. In 1990 census, they passed up Boston. In the 2000 census, they passed up Detroit and San Francisco. They only slightly larger in the 2000 census. The biggest growth was from 2000-2010. Now they have about a million more than Boston, Detroit, and San Francisco. It's interesting to see Boston and Detroit fall behind Miami over time. Philadelphia is the next city that will fall behind Miami. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_United_States_Metropolitan_Statistical_Areas Miami/Fort Lauderdale MSA: 1970: 2,236,885 1980: 3,220,520 1990: 4,056,228 2000: 5,007,564 2010: 5,564,635 Boston MSA: 1970: 3,919,024 1980: 3,938,641 1990: 4,133,895(Barely passes Boston in 1990) 2000: 4,391,344 2010: 4,552,402(Now, Miami has about a million more than Boston.) Detroit MSA: 1970: 4,435,051 1980: 4,353,365 1990: 4,248,699 2000: 4,452,557(Passes Detroit) 2010: 4,296,250(Now, Miami has about a million more) San Francisco/Oakland MSA: 1970: 3,109,249 1980: 3,250,605 1990: 3,711,756 2000: 4,123,740(Barely passes San Francisco) 2010: 4,335,391(Now, it has about a million more than San Francisco) Philadelphia MSA: 1970: 5,323,603 1980: 5,239,780 1990: 5,435,550 2000: 5,687,147 2010: 5,965,343 (Philly should fall behind Houston and Miami by the next census. Philly's growth has been stagnant for several decades.) Census brief: http://www.census.gov/prod/cen2010/briefs/c2010br-01.pdf Page 6 of 2010 Census brief: Spoiler
Miami is no 16 tv market. It is not a big market team. They positioned their cap situation right and got lucky.
The Heat are broadcast on cable on the regional sports network Sun Sports/Fox. Sun Sports coverage is much larger than Miami tv market(2 mil pop.). It covers multiple tv markets across most of southern half of Florida. There are many tv markets, including West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce DMA, covered by the Miami heat broadcast vs local tv broadcasts. The Time Warner broadcast is not just for Los Angeles city, but for the region.
This is a local tv deal. It is only for within the local area...just like all NBA teams have. So, correct, Direct TV could have bid on the Lakers, but if so, they lost to cable. So they cannot broadcast games on their own channel. NBA TV is blacked out for Houston residents when the Rockets play, because of the local contracts. This does not affect nationally broadcast games. They usually aren't blacked out.
