NBA and NHL on Google Video

I just read the following on www.micropersuasion.com:

"The NBA and Google Video have terminated their landmark partnership, which was announced to much ballyhoo earlier this year. All games, which had been previously available for a fee, have been pulled down from Google. This includes last year's NBA Finals.

In the meantime, the NHL and Google yesterday announced that hockey games are now available for free on Google Video. Even better, you can download them for your iPod. That's wonderful for consumers, but it points to Google's bigger problems when it comes to video.

My gut is that Google is having a lot of difficulty selling content on Google Video. If the NBA were making money with Google, you can bet they would have stayed there. In fact, they probably would have used it as a platform to promote their new League Pass Broadband service - but they didn't."

I disagree with this assessment that the NBA would have stayed with Google. Knowing the NBA, they are going to put all the content on NBA.com and drive people to the site. They have enough fans were they can create an economic structure to make money from their game video.

The NHL, on the other hand, made a smart business decision by signing this agreement. This is a great move for the League to continue generating exposure on the Web.