Big media companies are likely to feel the chill, with months of empty television time that would typically be filled with N.B.A. games. ESPN and ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Company, and Time Warner’s Turner Sports pay a combined $1 billion a season for the rights to games. The N.B.A. drives ratings in the coveted 18- to 34-year-old male demographic that advertisers pay a premium to reach. And it gives cable networks leverage in negotiating carriage fees, or the price cable companies pay in order to offer subscribers a network.