After the Clippers' television deal with Bally Sports expired this summer, some fans wondered on social media why Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, whose tech background fueled a wealth unmatched by any other owner of a professional team in North America, didn't simply start his own channel to broadcast the games.
Ballmer had thought about changing the televised sports-viewing experience since his time at Microsoft and tested new broadcast ideas since buying the Clippers in 2014. He and Second Spectrum, a Koreatown-based sports analytics company, unveiled Clippers CourtVision, which added new modes to the regular cable-subscription broadcast in 2018 such as one displaying the probability of a shot taken by a certain player at a certain spot and another using animations to liven up dunks and big plays. One of his great desires is finding a way to show viewers exactly what a player sees on the court.
All along, Ballmer said, he wanted not only to change the form of an NBA broadcast but also its delivery. When the team's TV deal came up this summer, he saw opportunity.
