The NBA isn’t leaving the Worldwide Leader in Sports — it’s just not yet official.
According to a report by John Ourand of Puck, Disney’s (DIS) ESPN and the NBA have “essentially come to terms” on keeping the league on ESPN/ABC airwaves despite the NBA opening up to negotiations with other networks earlier this week.
The framework of the deal reportedly includes ESPN keeping the top package of the NBA, which would include the exclusive rights to the NBA Finals. The deal would likely include fewer games though, which would allow the NBA to make room for another partner outside of the incumbents, ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) Turner.
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Puck reported that Turner does not have the same agreement set with the NBA just yet, but there have been “productive” conversations. All reports have pointed at WBD keeping the NBA with the same stipulation of fewer games in order for the NBA to add an additional partner or two.
Those other partners will likely include a streaming service, and Comcast’s (CMCSA) NBC/Peacock is reportedly one of the strongest players. NBC, which had the rights to the NBA in the 1990s, is reportedly looking for a package that would include games on linear television and on Peacock.
The report is that NBC is the biggest competition for WBD’s package — but it was revealed earlier this week that both ESPN and WBD have the right to match any offers from competition.
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There’s also interest from Amazon (AMZN) to enter the fold through Prime Video, and while Puck’s latest report says that tech giant is “likely” to land a deal with the NBA, there is still a lot to iron out before that happens.
Netflix (NFLX) and Apple (AAPL) are also reportedly still in the fold, but are behind the rest, while Google (GOOG) is still interested in carrying the league’s streaming package of NBA League Pass through YouTube TV. This makes sense as the company acquired NFL Sunday Ticket last year, and is already investing a whopping $2 billion annually for the service.
The financials of the next media rights deal are unclear — though the NBA is expecting a number that is double the current $2.7 billion annual average it’s receiving from ESPN and Turner.
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