The NBA is expected to formalize written contracts this week with Disney (ESPN/ABC), NBC, and Amazon for their media rights, according to Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal, who provides the following tentative details on the three deals:
- ESPN/ABC (“A” package): $2.8 billion per year; likely to include NBA Finals, one conference final, weekly prime-time games, the WNBA, and shared international rights.
- NBC (“B” package): $2.6 billion per year; likely to include “Basketball Night in America” on Sundays, two prime-time windows per week, conference semifinals, and one conference final.
- Amazon (“C” package): $1.8-2 billion per year; likely to include the in-season tournament, the play-in tournament, first-round playoff games, the WNBA, and shared international rights.
The parties are in the process of tweaking their agreements, says Friend, explaining that once the terms are finalized, the networks will take them to their respective boards to have the bids ratified. At that point, the NBA is expected to circle back to longtime television partner Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT Sports) to see if WBD wants to exercise its matching rights on NBC’s offer.
According to Friend, the expectation is that the NBA will argue that TNT doesn’t have the right to simply match NBC’s bid from a dollar-for-dollar perspective, since TNT lacks the over-the-air broadcast infrastructure that NBC can offer. Previous reporting stated that the league would want at least $300MM more from Warner Bros. Discovery for the same package of games that NBC is bidding on.
As Friend details, if Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t want to lose the NBA and isn’t willing to pay that added cost for the “B” package, the company could take the NBA to court and contest the league’s definition of what constitutes a matching offer. Sources tell the Sports Business Journal that the NBA is preparing its lawyers for a potential inquisition or lawsuit.
Disney was more proactive than WBD during the exclusive negotiating window that ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports were afforded earlier this year, per Friend, increasing its offer to $2.8 billion per year after paying $1.4 billion in its last deal with the NBA.
WBD, meanwhile, believed it would only have to bump its offer from $1.2 billion in the previous media deal to about $1.8-2.1 billion this time around, according to Friend, who says that’s a key reason why the NBA took that package of games to the open marketplace and found a more appealing offer from NBC.
The league’s current media rights deal will expire after the 2024/25 season, with the new agreement taking effect in ’25/26.
Anybody know what’s going on with local rights?
I believe each team has the freedom to negotiate those, so I dont think they are included in these discussions.
the end of TNT who had the best pregame shows.
lol
Greed ruining all like always. Amazon is garbage.
right when the wnba is about to explode, they throw it on streaming instead of a major network. way to stunt the growth. congrats.
Why is anyone crying for TNT? If they want to keep things as-is, all they have to do is pay more. This is how capitalism works. No one is forcing them to lose anything. It is entirely their choice.
This isn’t going to end well.
Losing TNT will hurt the NBA. Money is not everything, even though everyone in the US will claim it is…
However, knowing what i know about entertainment and the money involved with sports and other entertainment, no doubt the NBA does not care, the Players do not care and only the fans will complain.
NBA makes more money, Owners make more money and their franchises grow, players get bigger salaries…fans pay more, get less.
It probably wont, as far as I know NBC isnt a cable channel and TNT is, so NBC has a way bigger reach than TNT. The most watched games were always those on ABC, which was the only non cable channel broadcasting games. With NBC broadcasting games weekly and playoff games, their rating will probably be higher than they were with TNT.
Except if it’s a game with play off implications late in the season or the playoff games themselves it will certainly be put behind a pay wall on their subscription service Peacock. They tested it out last year with the Chiefs v Dolphins wildcard matchup.
The only good thing about ESPN/ABC’s coverage is Mike Breen who can just hop to NBC. Give that network what Disney is putting together and then let TNT have the rest. Then we can finally be rid of the toxicity that is Stephen A. and ESPN’s NBA coverage.
Gonna miss the Turner crew. Gonna miss games not being behind a pay wall even more…
Why would u miss a paywall? If you are being ironic it is hard to tell sorry lol
You need to read brother.
This is a shame, when dealing with billions I honestly wouldn’t be able to tell the difference of a few million difference.
The TNT crew has meant so much to the game. No other crew in sports captures that magic. I would turn a game on Tuesday or Thursday just to catch the TNT halftime and post game. I don’t see myself doing that now with these other places.