NBA approves new media deals with Disney (ABC/ESPN), Comcast (NBC), and Amazon for 11 years, $77 billion. Update: NBA REJECTS WBD's (TNT Sports) deal
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EzekelRAGE
Superstar
What a fukkin idiot Zaslav is. But there will be no reprecussions, and he'll keep his golden parachuta. Capitalism baby.
This was a little taste and teaser for NBC, but the NBA on NBC is going to be fresh and on the "up and up" for the league. Just think if TNT had the Olympics. Right after the gold medal win Chuck & Shaq would've ripped Team USA right out the gate for not blowing out Serbia and France and big-upped their careers and how they would've done it. 
Charles is something elseThis was a little taste and teaser for NBC, but the NBA on NBC is going to be fresh and on the "up and up" for the league. Just think if TNT had the Olympics. Right after the gold medal win Chuck & Shaq would've ripped Team USA right out the gate for not blowing out Serbia and France and big-upped their careers and how they would've done it.
On this video Before the game vs Serbia he's saying he's concerned about Serbia and the USA needs to be careful.
Then the day after the game He's saying we shouldn't be tested we should easily win games. So what is it Chuck should we be concerned with facing Serbia or should we be blowing out teams and not be tested
I missed this
Saysumthinfunnymike
VOTE!!!
That's going to be hard to do. I listened to a podcast earlier about all of this from some insiders in entertainment/media. Comcast could theoretically tell WBD that since they don't have the NBA anymore, we're lowering your carriage fees... that's true.
But in turn, WBD could say we are taking all of our networks off Comcast which includes TNT/TBS/Discovery/Food Network/TLC/CNN, etc.. I think there's even more than that. Cartoon Network.. etc..
It's basically half of all networks on cable. TNT by itself someone would say "ahh who cares" but losing all of those networks means you are losing a lot of content that housewives watch etc.. on down the line.. it would damn near kill Comcast's bundle.
Which Comcast could theoretically say "we are moving past the bundle era" but nobody has made it clear they are willing to walk away from regular cable yet.
Cable is dying a slow death... which brings me back to Zaslav. WBD had billions in debt leftover from AT&T. He trimmed down some of that debt already. Losing the NBA hurts TNT tremendously but he can still "win" in the eyes of shareholders if he wins the fight vs. Comcast.
It's happening in the next few months. If Zaslav is able to maintain the carriage fee numbers somehow, then the loss of the NBA means a lot less than it does on the surface.
As far as them writing down the value of TNT.... that was them admitting finally that cable is dying. Paramount just did the same exact thing but it wasn't reported on as much because people have an ax to grind with Zaslav. Disney didn't write down the values of their networks on their conference call but several insiders have said that they are pretty much in the same boat, they are hoping the theme park business gets them through this.
Saysumthinfunnymike
VOTE!!!
One thing I left out.... nobody is sure what to do with cable. Sports is the only thing that's really holding the bundles together but they have become too expensive for most of these entities. Disney is already deep in debt as well and there's no way that the advertising on sports is any longer going to match what the actual TV rights are...
They were hoping that streaming would be the answer but there's only so much room for streamers out there. I think you'll eventually see this come down to 3-4 streamers like Netflix, Amazon.. etc. and the rest will merge or go away.
Zaslav was brought in the slash debt but everyone knows the real reason he's brought in is for a big merger deal... not sure if the government will allow it to happen with all of their IP but who knows...
Disney was shopping around ESPN last year but ultimately ended up keeping it.. I think Disney will survive but they will have to be 'ok' with losing properties to the likes of Netflix etc. who can actually afford them.
They were hoping that streaming would be the answer but there's only so much room for streamers out there. I think you'll eventually see this come down to 3-4 streamers like Netflix, Amazon.. etc. and the rest will merge or go away.
Zaslav was brought in the slash debt but everyone knows the real reason he's brought in is for a big merger deal... not sure if the government will allow it to happen with all of their IP but who knows...
Disney was shopping around ESPN last year but ultimately ended up keeping it.. I think Disney will survive but they will have to be 'ok' with losing properties to the likes of Netflix etc. who can actually afford them.
Adam hinting at a potential USA vs the World game during the Winter Olympics year/All-Star game?
I saw this suggestion that Apple buying WBD, I don’t see that happening but I see them being interested in WB studios and HBO:
CEO of Morgan Industries
Superstar
This is a very good point.
I wonder how much of that stuff on Food Network, TBS, Discovery is on other streaming services, though. I wonder how many of those services Comcast has some stake in.
Take TBS, which I think still does Seinfeld reruns. WBD pulls TBS from Comcast networks, in theory. Comcast would just drive its subscribers to adopting the Peacock/Apple+/Netflix package for an extra fifteen bucks a month on their Comcast bill and tell folks that they can just catch Seinfeld that way, on demand.
I'm not possibly going to be able to list out every show, both original or syndicated, that WBD networks show throughout the day, but I wonder if Comcast has made the calculation that WBD's networks have watered themselves down by sharing a lot of rights to the shows that make them popular with streaming networks, and Comcast can just point viewers who tuned in for 90-Day Fiance or Pawn Stars to whatever streaming service that they've got a stake in that also has those shows available.
And I think Comcast is clearly willing to bleed money now to put themselves in a superior position later. Peacock is the obvious example - it's way too cheap in subscription price to have all the sports it already does, but Comcast is willing to eat those losses now so that they become an essential streamer to sports fans, then recoup that later through higher subscription fees. I think it's plausible that they'd also be willing to let WBD stations go dark on their cable service now to bleed out WBD to the point that it's begging for any carriage fee for TNT to get back on the air...or to bleed it enough that they can just acquire the parts of WBD that they want outright themselves.
The folks running Comcast NBC are diabolical. I don't think it should be legal to own both a cable company/ISP and a TV network/streamer. They have few or no viable cable/ISP competitors in the parts of America that they're in, so they leverage the sure profit from customers who have to have at least an ISP to work, etc., to loss-lead in TV and streaming, driving out competitors who can't afford to lose as much money as they can and driving down asset value so they can acquire them or pay them less. It's good strategy based on how things work, but there should be laws against a conglomerate being in both those businesses at the same time. That and internet service should be declared a public good and there should be a non-profit option run by local or state governments. But that's beyond the scope of this thread.
