The league has a new contract with the ABC/ESPN/ESPN2 networks: games on TV through 2016, digital redelivery of at least some games through the ESPN site, and (for the first time) a straight-up rights fee.

Is that fee any more than a token amount? If so, it could help the league a lot. But even the ability to say, right now, that they've got a new long-term deal, with some rights fee rather than none, sounds like good news to me.