KnickstapeCity
:mjpls:
they won't lose the NBA on TNT. NBA TV is already located at produced at Turner Studios for Christ's sakes.
The right will be between Mickey Mouse (ABC/ESPN) and others.
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
- Thread starter Anerdyblackguy
- Start date
What happen?
@Anerdyblackguy
Time to change the thread title to:
NBA is seeking $75B for next TV package (Up from $24B): ESPN/ABC, WBD/TNT, NBC, Apple, & Amazon are interested. FOX not bidding!
Paulsen unloaded the clip on ESPN
starts around 29:40. Says some viewership is being left on the table with games being on cable. Says ESPN is a terrible over the air partner. And the NBA better not run it back with the ABC. Says it would be a massive failure by Silver if ABC is the lone or primary over the air partner for the NBA. Good listen.
Endeavor President and COO Mark Shapiro: NBA is in a position of strength. Everyone is gonna want a piece of them they drive viewership and platform
starts around 32-33 minute mark talks NBA
starts around 29:40. Says some viewership is being left on the table with games being on cable. Says ESPN is a terrible over the air partner. And the NBA better not run it back with the ABC. Says it would be a massive failure by Silver if ABC is the lone or primary over the air partner for the NBA. Good listen.
Endeavor President and COO Mark Shapiro: NBA is in a position of strength. Everyone is gonna want a piece of them they drive viewership and platform
starts around 32-33 minute mark talks NBA
Dreamchaser
All Star
NBC will probably be the big winner here, they lack sports on NBC. Peacock just paid over $110 million for one nfl game next year. They need to revamp the peacock app to be more competitive. Either they get the NBA or buy Paramount or WBD.
How you will watch NBA games in the future
The NBA playoffs are drawing to a close. But behind the scenes, an equally competitive, high-stakes contest is just beginning over who will televise the league into the next decade. The price tag is expected to be over $5 billion a year.Currently, Walt Disney Co., home of ABC and ESPN, and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., owner of TNT, are in an exclusive negotiating window to renew their contracts with the NBA. The current deals expire in 2025, and executives at the two companies are waiting for the league to decide what packages of games it will sell. Meanwhile, just about every other major media company — and some technology giants — have expressed interest in making bids once the exclusive window ends next spring.
Currently, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery pay about $2.7 billion a year combined to broadcast NBA games to a national audience. With all the additional bidders lining up, the league is poised to rake in even more money under the next round of contracts.
“I would expect NBA rights to more than double and potentially quite a bit more,” said Ed Desser, a sports media consultant and former NBA executive who has negotiated the league’s previous media deals.
While regular season NBA ratings were flat, viewership for the playoffs has been the highest in years, and live sports are almost single handedly keeping the cable-TV business alive. With the NFL, MLB and NHL having already renewed their media contracts, the NBA is the last major US sports deal up for grabs for years to come.
This time around, the league is expected to sell its rights to more than two companies. It could carve out games for a streaming service that include international rights or, perhaps, games that previously aired on the beleaguered regional sports networks, according to a person familiar with the league’s thinking.
To reach as many fans as possible, the league wants more games to be shown on free broadcast stations, such as ABC, NBC, Fox or CBS. And when games do appear on cable channels, which are rapidly losing subscribers, the league will likely want to air those contests on streaming services simultaneously in order to pull in additional viewers.
Last month at the CAA World Congress of Sports conference, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the next go-round will “most likely be some sort of hybrid,” mixing broadcast, cable and streaming options.
Based on interviews with 10 sports media executives familiar with the league’s negotiations, here’s an assessment of the potential bidders and how it might all shake out.
Disney
Pros: To many, Disney is the favorite to keep the rights. It has the full suite to offer — a broadcast channel in ABC, a cable channel in ESPN and a streaming service in ESPN+. ESPN has a history with the NBA that goes back four decades and a close relationship with the league. Disney CEO Bob Iger is a NBA fan who has known Commissioner Silver since the 1990s. The ties run deep. When the NBA resumed its 2020 Covid-disrupted season, it did so at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex.
Cons: While ESPN wants to put games on ESPN+ to grow the service, which has about 25 million subscribers, the league may push for games to be on streaming outlets with a larger reach — such as Disney+, which has about 46 million subscribers in the US and Canada.
Warner Bros. Discovery
Pros: Warner Bros. Discovery also has a close relationship with the NBA. The company airs NBA games on TNT. It jointly manages the league’s digital assets. It owns Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, two digital properties that promote the NBA to younger fans. And it broadcasts a popular studio show, Inside the NBA.
In November, CEO David Zaslav told an investor conference that “we don’t need the NBA.” Even so, he and Luis Silberwasser, the head of the sports unit who this month attended multiple playoff games, have made clear that they would like to hold onto NBA rights.
At a recent conference hosted by SVB MoffettNathanson, Zaslav said he was “hopeful that we’ll get a deal done” but added “it’ll probably look a little different.”
Cons: In the next deal, NBA executives want to prioritize free over-the-air broadcast stations — something Warner Bros. Discovery can’t offer. The company’s streaming service, Max, has yet to prove it can broadcast a major live sporting event. Also, the company has massive debt from its merger last year, raising questions of whether it can afford to pay billions of dollars more for NBA games. Observers believe Zaslav will try to thread the needle: renewing with the league but for fewer games, thereby saving money while also satisfying contracts with cable-TV operators that require TNT to show a certain number of games.
Amazon
Pros: If the NBA carves out a package for another broadcaster, Amazon is a likely frontrunner. The company recently proved it can exclusively stream a season of NFL games without major hiccups. Those contests also reached more younger viewers, an attractive selling point for a league that wants to stay relevant with the next generation. And Amazon is already in business with the NBA in various ways, including streaming games in Brazil.
Cons: Amazon’s Thursday night NFL viewership this season was down about 40% from the year before when the games were on traditional TV and Prime Video, a potential concern for NBA executives. Also, Amazon has made higher bids than TV networks on recent sports rights deals, including for the Big Ten Conference, but come away empty handed. It’s a sign that some sports leagues still prefer their games to be on traditional TV and not behind the paywall of a streaming service.
Comcast/NBCUniversal
Pros: NBC has history with the NBA, having broadcast its games during the Michael Jordan era of the 1990s and early 2000s. NBC remains in business with the league — its regional sports networks show NBA teams, including the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, to local fans. Like Disney, NBC can offer broadcast, cable and streaming. And one of NBC’s top executives, Mark Lazarus, helped secure a deal with the NBA when he was the head of sports at Turner (now part of Warner Bros. Discovery).
Cons: Like its peers, NBCUniversal has been cutting costs and has potential renewals with WWE and NASCAR on the horizon, which might limit how much it can afford to pay for NBA rights.
Apple
Pros: Apple has been expanding its ambitions in sports, having acquired rights to Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball. It can reach hundreds of millions of people globally who own its devices. It has a relationship with the league via a music deal. The NBA has also structured its media contracts so its local, national and international rights deals are set to expire at the same time. That may be especially attractive to Apple, which showed in its MLS deal a preference for acquiring the global media rights to a sports property. Apple executive Eddy Cue is a fan of the Golden State Warriors and, like commissioner Silver, went to Duke University.
Cons: How committed Apple is to live sports remains unclear, and it’s difficult to tell whether the investment is paying off because the company does not reveal how many people watch its soccer and baseball broadcasts.
Fox
Pros: Fox has expressed some interest in NBA rights. Unlike its peers, Fox doesn’t have a streaming service that shows high-profile live sports. But, according to people familiar with the matter, the company might be open to making a joint bid where NBA games would be shown simultaneously on Fox’s broadcast network and another company’s streaming service.
Cons: At the recent SVB MoffettNathanson investor conference, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch appeared to pour cold water on the idea, saying it was “highly unlikely” that his company would make a bid.
Netflix
Pros: Netflix is unlikely to be a serious bidder for US rights to NBA games, but may bid for a smaller package of games in some international markets. The company has explored buying sports rights, including tennis in some European markets, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Cons: Netflix has no experience streaming live sports and a company spokeswoman said the idea that it was open to bidding on NBA rights is “not accurate.” The company is still trying to master the technical challenge of streaming live programming. In April, Netflix botchedan attempt to show a live reunion of Love is Blind, frustrating fans.
Pros: If the NBA carves out a package for another broadcaster, Amazon is a likely frontrunner. The company recently proved it can exclusively stream a season of NFL games without major hiccups. Those contests also reached more younger viewers, an attractive selling point for a league that wants to stay relevant with the next generation. And Amazon is already in business with the NBA in various ways, including streaming games in Brazil.
Cons: Amazon’s Thursday night NFL viewership this season was down about 40% from the year before when the games were on traditional TV and Prime Video, a potential concern for NBA executives. Also, Amazon has made higher bids than TV networks on recent sports rights deals, including for the Big Ten Conference, but come away empty handed. It’s a sign that some sports leagues still prefer their games to be on traditional TV and not behind the paywall of a streaming service.
Comcast/NBCUniversal
Pros: NBC has history with the NBA, having broadcast its games during the Michael Jordan era of the 1990s and early 2000s. NBC remains in business with the league — its regional sports networks show NBA teams, including the Golden State Warriors and Boston Celtics, to local fans. Like Disney, NBC can offer broadcast, cable and streaming. And one of NBC’s top executives, Mark Lazarus, helped secure a deal with the NBA when he was the head of sports at Turner (now part of Warner Bros. Discovery).
Cons: Like its peers, NBCUniversal has been cutting costs and has potential renewals with WWE and NASCAR on the horizon, which might limit how much it can afford to pay for NBA rights.
Apple
Pros: Apple has been expanding its ambitions in sports, having acquired rights to Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball. It can reach hundreds of millions of people globally who own its devices. It has a relationship with the league via a music deal. The NBA has also structured its media contracts so its local, national and international rights deals are set to expire at the same time. That may be especially attractive to Apple, which showed in its MLS deal a preference for acquiring the global media rights to a sports property. Apple executive Eddy Cue is a fan of the Golden State Warriors and, like commissioner Silver, went to Duke University.
Cons: How committed Apple is to live sports remains unclear, and it’s difficult to tell whether the investment is paying off because the company does not reveal how many people watch its soccer and baseball broadcasts.
Fox
Pros: Fox has expressed some interest in NBA rights. Unlike its peers, Fox doesn’t have a streaming service that shows high-profile live sports. But, according to people familiar with the matter, the company might be open to making a joint bid where NBA games would be shown simultaneously on Fox’s broadcast network and another company’s streaming service.
Cons: At the recent SVB MoffettNathanson investor conference, Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch appeared to pour cold water on the idea, saying it was “highly unlikely” that his company would make a bid.
Netflix
Pros: Netflix is unlikely to be a serious bidder for US rights to NBA games, but may bid for a smaller package of games in some international markets. The company has explored buying sports rights, including tennis in some European markets, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Cons: Netflix has no experience streaming live sports and a company spokeswoman said the idea that it was open to bidding on NBA rights is “not accurate.” The company is still trying to master the technical challenge of streaming live programming. In April, Netflix botchedan attempt to show a live reunion of Love is Blind, frustrating fans.
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Games have been good. Even denver sweeping lakers was competitive.
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
I said that a few years ago but I was told they people aren’t watching tv anyway so it didn’t matter. You come out better putting sports on standard network channels that everyone has access to than cable. People are literally getting rid of cable and that’s getting rid of viewers. Everybody ain’t paying for streaming either:
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
NBC is Peacock and CBS is apart of Paramount . They need to be all over this shyt. Fox has a lot of sports but I’m shocked that they’re not pursuing the nba even though i shouldn’t be shocked
I’ve always felt that’s part of what helped nfl become so dominant. You don’t have t have cable, channel surf or wonder what time the games were coming on. Growing up there’s times we had cable and didn’t have cable.
It's still weird that the NBA imposed those strict salary cap penalties in new CBA knowing that the cap was about to do a major spike with the television rights negotiations.
Tribal Outkast
Veteran
I mean there’s enough games to have the ok games on cable and the big matchups on network.. The nfl definitely be doing that. These nba fools be running games on the nba channel.. I think I know one person that even has that channel. I think having more games on network channels might be good for them. Fox needs it honestly because their prime time lineups are pretty much trash but they don’t want it.
