NBA League Pass in HD

With the NBA season beginning tonight, lets take a look
at the NBA League Pass (LP) sports package, which includes
some HD games and is offered by local cable systems,
Directv and Dish Network. I have been an LP sub for the
last four years with Dish Network. LP provides up to 40
regular season NBA games a week in addition to the
national telecasts on TNT, ESPN, ABC and NBATV.
Subscribers are blacked out for the LP games of their
home team in the geographic area that they reside in.

If a sub is an out of market subscriber (Celtics fan living
in Los Angeles), the sub can more or less watch all 82
regular season Celtics games with a combination of games
on TNT, ESPN, ABC, NBATV, LP and the local Lakers and
Clippers games when the Celtics play the Lakers or Clippers.

Why would I subscribe to LP if I am not an out of market
subscriber? LP gives an NBA fan the opportunity to learn
about the players on all 30 teams, listen to the viewpoint
of different announcers, see the strengths and weaknesses
of each team, and pick your favorite matchup of the evening
to watch. LP also comes with NBATV. The NBA.com web site
lists about 68 HD games to be broadcast on NBATV this season.

If you do not think that you have the time to watch the additional
games on LP and NBATV, you can DVR two games on a dual tuner
DVR and watch the last period with fast forwarding in about 12 minutes.

How much does NBA LP cost? The early bird price is $159.
On November 7, the price increases to $179.

Are the games in HD? Both the Directv and Dish Network web sites
indicate that select games will be provided in HD. If Directv or
Dish Network provides the regional sports network (RSN) in HD,
the LP game will probably be in HD. Directv and Dish Network
do not provide every RSN in HD, but both satellite providers
are working to increase the number of HD RSNs provided.
Both Directv and Dish Network launched NBATV HD yesterday,
so the LP subs will get all of the NBATV games in HD.

Cable systems also have the option to provide LP games in HD
with InDemand's TeamHD channel. The November TeamHD
schedule is posted on InDemand's NBA LP section of its
web site (http://www.indemand.com/) and there are many HD
doubleheaders listed. TeamHD is optional to cable systems
and not every cable system will provide it. Subs should check
with their local cable system if TeamHD will be provided.
In 2006-07, cable systems provided NBATV HD games on the
MOJO channel or its predecessor INHD. The MOJO web site
does not list NBATV HD games for this season. Subs should
check with their local cable system to determine if NBATV HD
games are provided.

I am excited about watching the NBA in HD this season.