Verizon Nears NBA Deal for Mobile-First Service

SportsBusiness Daily: Verizon is said to be close to completing an NBA content-rights deal. The agreement is expected to include intellectual property and other traditional sponsorship rights but is centered on content — which Verizon wants for over-the-top programming efforts, especially its recently launched go90 product. However, a Verizon-NBA deal would almost certainly not include live NBA games. Those rights are owned by ESPN/ABC and Turner.