AOL Time Warner and the National Basketball Association, currently negotiating for a new cable-rights contract, might team up for a jointly owned cable network, reports say.

An article in the New York Times last week first raised the possibility that a Turner-NBA network could replace CNN/SI, which is distributed to about 20 million homes, or could expand the current NBA.com TV network, which is distributed to 17 million homes on DirecTV and In Demand. A joint venture or equity holding could keep rights fees down while allowing the NBA to benefit if the economy rebounds.

Starting from scratch with a new channel is unlikely, as is any scenario that completely removes the NBA from TNT and TBS. Repositioning CNN/SI as a basketball-heavy re-branded network is more likely, although sources familiar with the situation stress the speculative nature of the possibilities now being floated.

Turner has said it does not plan to pay the dramatic increases of years past when the current $890 million contract expires at the end of the 2001-2002 season, saying that there are a number of ways to creatively structure a deal and keep costs from skyrocketing. Options discussed have included entertainment tie-ins and various Internet/broadband elements; AOL Time Warner's America Online unit's 30 million subscribers could provide the NBA with added value.

?There's been a lot of discussion about a lot of things right now, concentrating on the core business, which is having the games on TNT or TBS,? Turner corporate spokesman Brad Turell told Cable World. ?Anything above that?we'd have to defer to the NBA, which has their own channel and owns their own programs.?

Turell also said the question of whether the rights package is linked to the promise of a joint-venture channel would have to be answered by the NBA. An NBA spokesperson declined to comment.

Turner executives have avoided discussing any details about the negotiations since the process officially began two months ago. The exclusive window was supposed to slam shut in mid-October, but NBA commissioner David Stern has said he favors working with incumbents Turner and broadcast-rights holder NBC and that he will continue to negotiate exclusively with them as long as it appears that a mutually beneficial deal can be struck.

A spokesman for Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN confirmed that the network, which has expressed a strong interest in the rights, is not in discussions with the NBA. Like Turner, ESPN would be in a position to set up a channel with the NBA.

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