It sounded outlandish three years ago when CNBC reported that the NBA could seek $75 billion in its next rights deal, but the league is on the brink of exceeding that mark.
The NBA’s looming media rights deals with Disney, Amazon and potentially Comcast could reach as high as $76 billion over the course of 11 years, Lucas Shaw of Bloomberg reported Thursday. As previously reported by The Wall Street Journal, Disney would pay $2.6 billion and Comcast has offered to pay $2.5 billion. Newly reported by Bloomberg is the value of Amazon’s third package, $1.8 billion per year.
Combined, those deals would amount to about $6.9 billion per year, which over the course of an 11-year term would equal $76 billion total.
The current NBA rights deal that expires at the end of next season was worth $24 billion over nine years.
There was no shortage of skepticism when CNBC reported in 2021 that the NBA was seeking to potentially triple its rights fees in its next negotiations, fueled by a decline in ratings that was particularly sharp and well-documented. The league was coming off of its least-watched NBA Finals on record in the COVID-delayed 2020 “bubble.”
Now, the league is not only poised to meet its desired mark, but to dramatically outpace all other sports properties outside of the NFL.
Per the Bloomberg report, Comcast remains favored to acquire the “B” package of games currently held by Warner Bros. Discovery. If successful, NBA games would return to NBC for the first time since the 2001-02 season and would also air on Peacock and the Comcast-owned cable networks (presumably USA).
The NBA’s looming media rights deals with Disney, Amazon and potentially Comcast could reach as high as $76 billion over the course of 11 years, Lucas Shaw of Bloomberg reported Thursday. As previously reported by The Wall Street Journal, Disney would pay $2.6 billion and Comcast has offered to pay $2.5 billion. Newly reported by Bloomberg is the value of Amazon’s third package, $1.8 billion per year.
Combined, those deals would amount to about $6.9 billion per year, which over the course of an 11-year term would equal $76 billion total.
The current NBA rights deal that expires at the end of next season was worth $24 billion over nine years.
There was no shortage of skepticism when CNBC reported in 2021 that the NBA was seeking to potentially triple its rights fees in its next negotiations, fueled by a decline in ratings that was particularly sharp and well-documented. The league was coming off of its least-watched NBA Finals on record in the COVID-delayed 2020 “bubble.”
Now, the league is not only poised to meet its desired mark, but to dramatically outpace all other sports properties outside of the NFL.
Per the Bloomberg report, Comcast remains favored to acquire the “B” package of games currently held by Warner Bros. Discovery. If successful, NBA games would return to NBC for the first time since the 2001-02 season and would also air on Peacock and the Comcast-owned cable networks (presumably USA).
I can’t front on him
