NBA’s new TV Deal looks to go to Streaming

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The NBA’s next media rights deal will have an emphasis on streaming, with Amazon reportedly favored to secure a piece of the pie.

According to The Athletic reporter Andrew Marchand, the deal will make streaming the “principal distribution method.”

www.mediaite.com

NBA’s Next TV Deal Could Put Playoff Games — Including Finals — Exclusively on Streaming Services: Report

The NBA's next media rights deal will have an emphasis on streaming, with Amazon reportedly favored to secure a piece of the pie.
www.mediaite.com www.mediaite.com
 
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And just like that, looks to be almost done-

In what will be a landmark move in sports media history, the NBA and Amazon Prime Video have the framework of a deal that will make the streaming service one of the main homes for the league’s games, executives with direct knowledge of the talks told The Athletic.

It is expected that Prime Video’s package will include significant regular-season and postseason games, perhaps even some conference finals. The anticipation is that the final contract will be for at least a decade and begin the 2025-2026 season.

theathletic.com

Amazon Prime has framework deal for NBA broadcast rights

The NBA prefers to have three companies involved in its new deals, but has not ruled out adding a fourth.
theathletic.com theathletic.com

The other part of the deal goes to ABC/ESPN, perfect start for their two new streaming ventures.

As far as the third set of rights, which is games during the regular season, maybe some playoffs, NBC is trying hard, while it looks like Warner does not have the money to match NBC.
 
If Warner loses the NBA rights, what exactly are they bringing to the “Hulu Sports” joint venture? 5 MLB games? Also….that might be the death of Warner on tv because they have zero new non-sports content.
 
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savarese04 said:
If Warner loses the NBA rights, what exactly are they bringing to the “Hulu Sports” joint venture? 5 MLB games? Also….that might be the death of Warner on tv because they have zero new non-sports content.
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Also have the NHL, some regular season, playoffs, championship.

But they will have the NBA for one more year..

But you are correct, Warner cannot afford to lose the NBA, but unfortunately, it seems like they cannot afford the NBA.

Cord Cutting is hitting them hard, have lost 30 million per sub fees in the last 7 years and it is getting worse, advertising is way, way down, they have already announced, that they are no longer producing new content for TBS/TNT.

This is what the article I linked above said-

With ESPN, Amazon and the NBA all under the impression that they will complete deals, this puts the onus on TNT Sports, which has had the NBA since 1984. It is in a fight with NBC, which was the lead partner of the NBA before losing its rights in 2002. NBC, with its streaming service Peacock, wants back in and is competing with Warner Bros. Discovery Sports for a deal.

Warner Bros. Discovery has the right to match deals, but NBC could structure an agreement in a way that makes it difficult.
 
Bruce said:
Also have the NHL, some regular season, playoffs, championship.

But they will have the NBA for one more year..

But you are correct, Warner cannot afford to lose the NBA, but unfortunately, it seems like they cannot afford the NBA.
Click to expand...
If Warner can't land the NBA again, it's going to put that much more pressure on Zaslav to find a way to acquire or merge with CBS, who has 50% of Sunday afternoon NFL games + playoffs, along with Big 10 football, NCAA basketball (including the rest of March Madness that Warner doesn't have), WNBA, PGA, women's US soccer, and European soccer.
 
NashGuy said:
If Warner can't land the NBA again, it's going to put that much more pressure on Zaslav to find a way to acquire or merge with CBS, who has 50% of Sunday afternoon NFL games + playoffs, along with Big 10 football, NCAA basketball (including the rest of March Madness that Warner doesn't have), WNBA, PGA, women's US soccer, and European soccer.
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If it cannot afford the 3rd Tier ( only regular season games, maybe some playoffs ) NBA rights, doubtful it can acquire CBS and the $2 Billion a year NFL rights ( plus all the others) that come with it.
 
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Bruce said:
If it cannot afford the 3rd Tier ( only regular season games, maybe some playoffs ) NBA rights, doubtful it can acquire CBS and the $2 Billion a year NFL rights ( plus all the others) that come with it.
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Of course it can't on its own. But M&A deals work differently than regular operating expenses, such as renewing NBA rights. WBD would either raise money for a CBS acquisition by issuing more debt (bonds) or and/or they would issue more shares of stock (thereby diluting existing shareholders' stakes) to buy CBS. A venture capital group might be involved in the transaction; there seems to be a lot of interest among VCs in the media landscape -- note the current bids for Paramount from RedBird, KKR and Apollo.
 
Warning: paywalled (probably).


NBC Prepares $2.5-Billion-a-Year Bid to Pluck NBA Rights From TNT​

League is in advanced stages of a new round of media-rights deals; Disney’s payments would increase under proposed deal​

If Warner loses NBA rights, that would injure the planned sports-streaming venture the company is launching alongside Disney and Fox. Carrying NBA games was to be one of its key selling points.
 
ncted said:
Warning: paywalled (probably).


NBC Prepares $2.5-Billion-a-Year Bid to Pluck NBA Rights From TNT​

League is in advanced stages of a new round of media-rights deals; Disney’s payments would increase under proposed deal​

If Warner loses NBA rights, that would injure the planned sports-streaming venture the company is launching alongside Disney and Fox. Carrying NBA games was to be one of its key selling points.
Click to expand...
As I posted.

Warner has first refusal and can match, but cannot afford, last year, as the article says, paid $1.2 billion last year, $1.3 Billion more is a big increase.

But, like I wrote, they cannot afford to lose it either.

By the way, the NBA is getting a lot more for the these new deals then they planned for.
 
Bruce said:
By the way, the NBA is getting a lot more for the these new deals then they planned for.
Click to expand...
I really thought, given the landscape right now, they'd get 30% increase TOPS. Good for them, but holy smokes.
ncted said:
If Warner loses NBA rights, that would injure the planned sports-streaming venture the company is launching alongside Disney and Fox. Carrying NBA games was to be one of its key selling points.
Click to expand...
This was my first thought earlier. And you know NBC isn't joining this JV, given the tepid relationship with Disney. To be honest, I would have had a hard time forking out $40 for Disney+Warner+Fox; BUT, if you give me Disney+Fox+NBC, you might be able to convince me to fork out $50.
 
savarese04 said:
I really thought, given the landscape right now, they'd get 30% increase TOPS. Good for them, but holy smokes.

This was my first thought earlier. And you know NBC isn't joining this JV, given the tepid relationship with Disney. To be honest, I would have had a hard time forking out $40 for Disney+Warner+Fox; BUT, if you give me Disney+Fox+NBC, you might be able to convince me to fork out $50.
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New service at $40 with Fox+Disney+Warner, then +Peacock at $7.99/$13.99 (without commercials).

So $47.99 to $53.99, so close to your $50.
 
savarese04 said:
I really thought, given the landscape right now, they'd get 30% increase TOPS. Good for them, but holy smokes.
Click to expand...
Just read, ESPN’s deal is for $2.6B, NBC is at $2.5B.

So, I would assume Amazon is about $3B, so all together, $8.1 Billion per year.

NBA was hoping $5-6 Billion total for the new deal.
 
This is almost over and for Warner, looks like they are not part of the new agreement-

The NBA is formalizing written contracts with Disney, NBC and Amazon this week, with sources calling it the final stage of media rights negotiations that may inevitably lead incumbent Warner Bros. Discovery to take legal action.

The final tweaks -- which sources said have been fluid and changing almost every other day -- are expected to be finalized in the coming days or week, at which time sources said all three networks will go to their respective leadership groups to have their contracts approved. At that point, sources said the league will take NBC's contract to WBD to see if WBD CEO David Zaslav is able to match it in "total value."

Considering WBD is $40B in debt and does not have the over-the-air infrastructure of NBC, sources believe WBD would need to pay more than $2.6B to match the deal and that NBC's overall bid could be structured in a way (for example, multiple weekly over-the-air games) that makes it virtually impossible for WBD to equal. Sources said Zaslav would then essentially have three choices: pass on the NBA, drastically overpay for the "B" package or take the NBA to court over the definition of a match.

www.sportsbusinessjournal.com

NBA formalizing deals with Disney, Amazon, NBC

The NBA is formalizing written contracts with Disney, NBC and Amazon this week, the final stage of media rights negotiations that may inevitably lead incumbent Warner Bros. Discovery to take legal action.
www.sportsbusinessjournal.com www.sportsbusinessjournal.com
 
I wonder if ESPN with sublicense the games back to TNT like they did with the CFP. Lets TNT stay in the game, with much lower outlay and saves the streaming JV?
 
Lots of streaming in the new deal. The biggest piece is starting in 2026-27, Amazon will exclusively stream a conference final. There will be weekly games that are exclusive to streaming as well as some early round games streamed on Amazon as well as the play-in games. But that conference finals - that is a big step 2 years from now.
 

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