Like every sports league, the NBA is constantly trying to improve its product and try new ideas -- especially in digital spaces. Thus, the NBA is preparing to roll out a new feature on League Pass this season that will allow fans to buy the fourth quarter of single games for $1.99. Via ESPN:
The NBA will announce on Thursday that fans can, for the first time, purchase a portion of in-progress game to watch.
Fans will be able to purchase the remainder of any out-of-market game on League Pass once the buzzer sounds to end the third quarter. The price initially will be $1.99 whether the fan buys it at the start of the quarter or to watch the last 30 seconds.
"It's a big moment, but it's also a small first step," NBA commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN on Thursday. "There are limitations in the technology right now, but we're working as quickly as possible so that, at some point in the near future, fans can choose to buy any part of any game."
Moving forward, there will also be options to buy games at the start of each quarter, as well as 10-minute portions of games. Already, fans were able to buy single games for $6.99.
Essentially adding micro-transactions to League Pass like it's a pay-to-play game on your phone is a little weird, but it's not hard to follow the train of thought from the people at the league office. They already have the technology to stream single games to people, so simply breaking it down into quarters or segments wouldn't take much extra work, and in theory tuning in to the fourth quarter of a close, exciting game is something a lot of people do.
However, it will be interesting to see if people actually want to pay for this. As an initial reaction, it seems that the fans following the league and games on a nightly basis close enough to know that a fourth quarter is worth tuning into would already have the full version of League Pass.
