According to Arizona Sports, the Suns are giving away free TV antennas to fans in the Arizona area. Gary Television will be airing the Suns games in the area on Channel 3. This gift to Suns fans has been getting plenty of attention.
Fans can sign up for antennas on Suns.com. The item is currently out of stock but the Suns may restock soon.
As a whole, this is a great investment by the Suns and their new owner Matt Ishbia. First of all, the PR bonus that is added by making your games wildly available at a time when you have possibly the greatest player on the planet is extremely high.
Cable is a dying media, and having a place that the Suns and the rest of the NBA can transition to might be a way to keep revenue up. While it might be free of charge this time, down the line this could be part of a system of how the NBA charges for their media rights.
Suns offering a free antenna to fans to watch games
While this was a free goodwill gift to fans, this move seems to signal that the NBA is preparing for a post-cable world. One of the bigger cable providers is already leaving the cable industry as a whole. With cable not being a profitable market anymore and streaming being the future, the NBA needs to adjust.
This is a free gift via an owner trying to control more of the market while his team is good but other teams have done this in the past. The Clippers have Clipper Vision which allows fans to watch games without a cable subscription. It does cost a hefty penny to pay for the service so this is not something that Steve Ballmer is doing out of the kindness of his heart.
As a whole, having teams provide their streaming services straight to the consumer is something that will happen more often. In this case, it was free but going forward it will most likely not be.
