Report: Jersey advertisement revenue included in new TV deal

The NBA will share revenue from jersey advertisements with Turner and ESPN as part of the new nine-year, $24 billion television deal. When the new deal starts in the 2016-17 season, Turner will sell advertisements on All-Star Game jerseys.

The NBA will share revenue from jersey advertisements with Turner and ESPN as part of the new nine-year, $24 billion television deal, John Ourand and John Lombardo of Sports Business Journal report.

When the new deal starts in the 2016-17 season, Turner will sell advertisements on All-Star Game jerseys. According to the report, Turner and ESPN wanted the ability to sell the advertisements themselves, but the NBA did not want to give them all of the profit. When the concept was being seriously considered in 2012, ESPN's Darren Rovell reported the total value of ads on jerseys could be as high as $157.5 million per season, according to Joyce Julius & Associates.

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Sources involved in the discussions said the two networks will receive a cut of any team’s jersey sponsorship deal that is signed by a national brand that would have bought time on ESPN or TNT’s NBA game telecasts — think Coca-Cola or Samsung. The networks will either get a straight payout from the deal, or they will receive specific commitments from the sponsor to buy additional TV advertising during games, a network source said.

Sources familiar with the TV deals admit both networks pushed hard to be allowed to sell ads on team jerseys outright, but the league balked at handing over the potentially lucrative rights. Under the new TV deals, NBA teams maintain the rights to sell the jersey advertising, which has an estimated value ranging from around $800,000 for small-market teams like the Memphis Grizzlies to more than $10 million for large-market teams like the Los Angeles Lakers.

Before it was tabled in 2012, the league was discussing a 2.5 inch by 2.5 inch patch for the front of jerseys. Ourand and Lombardo report the league couldn't decide how to share the revenue from jersey sales in 2012, both between teams and its television partners. The league moved its logo to the back of all uniforms this season, a move speculated to be done with advertisements in mind.

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