The National Basketball Association and Turner Broadcasting System will jointly manage the NBA’s domestic digital businesses, starting in full with the 2008-09 season and running through the 2015-16 season. Early reports on this missed the mark a bit—as we’re sure to hear more about in a conference call that starts shortly, this is not like other instances of a media company taking over the running of the league’s website, etc. The operation will be run out of TBS HQ in Atlanta but David Levy, president of the Turner Broadcasting Sports, and Adam Silver, NBA deputy commissioner and COO, will manage the venture together and will appoint a GM responsible for the portfolio. That’s not to say TBS isn’t gaining a lot of power and it’s fair to say this could look like a distinction without a difference:

-- TBS “will assume responsibility for programming, marketing and technical operations of NBA TV, the league’s 24-hour digital television network.”
-- TBS will host and operate the NBA.com Network, which includes NBA.com, WNBA.com and NBADLeague.com

But digital ad sales will be handled jointly by TBS and the NBA, while NBA Entertainment will continue to provide content.

Update: A lot more details following an hour-long call:
“Practical" JV: As NBA Commissioner David Stern explained it, this is a not a technical joint venture but what he calls a “practical” one: “We’re doing it together, sharing the burdens and the benefits.” In fact, Turner no longer owns any equity—it had held 2 percent in NBA.TV—and has turned back the digital rights it acquired as a broadcast partner. Turner’s Levy calls the eight-year profit-sharing agreement “a new, strategic business model for the digital age.”

Why not DIY?: Asked why go in this direction when the NFL and MLBAM went in-house, Stern said it reflects the way the NBA is doing business: “We have extraordinary opportunities on a global scale. ... We think we are in an ‘era of partnership’ ... having your own expertise in every aspect of a business is ultimately going to turn out to be too expensive for us and, ultimately not the best opportunity for growth.” In this case, the NBA taps into Turner’s expertise in programming, production and digital, as well as its integrated sales—with the comfort level that comes from 24 years of working together through Turner’s cable rights.

Domestic only: As noted at the top, this deal covers domestic rights only. International will vary—the recently formed NBA China holds the rights for that country. That’s why the NBA is keeping a separate, albeit scaled down, operation in Secaucus, NJ.

Teams: The NBA is also evaluating its digital rights structure for teams. Silver says the philosophy—now that technnology can provide gated rights for online and mobile—is “federalist”: ”Give our teams digital rights in their territories where they have game rights… teams can not go into their team markets with their hands tied.” That isn’t the case yet.

Broadband and wireless: The agreement covers both broadband and wireless. Turner and the NBA will decide on video-sharing deals going forward. Both already work with many of the same online video partners.  Silver: “They believe in aggressive experimentation in the same way we do.”

NBA.TV: The distribution deals for the struggling channel are all up at the end of 2008. The NBA hopes the deal with Turner will give it more to offer operators, scoring not only renewals but expanded carriage beyond the roughly 15 million homes currently passed. That includes VOD, more interactivity. The NBA still handles distribution.

League Pass: The NBA hopes to end the year with 300-500,000 subscribers to its out-of-market package, offered non-exclusive on cable and satellite. They want to create several new ways to sell it—follow-your-team packages, young stars, nightly. They call it changing the “consumer proposition.”