As the national television media rights deal for the NBA nears its expiration at the conclusion of the 2024-25 campaign, Netflix has reportedly expressed an interest in acquiring rights to the new NBA In-Season Tournament.
John Ourand of Sports Business Journal reports that the streaming company is considering creating a docuseries around the tournament, similar to what it has done for Formula 1 with Drive to Survive, golf with Full Swing, and tennis with Break Point. Netflix would look to use this style of programming to entice people to tune into the games.
The slate of contests, which occur on Tuesdays and Fridays in November during the regular season, count towards both the overall win-loss record and standings within the individual tournament group. At the end of the month, the team with the best group play record advances to the single-elimination playoffs, along with one Wild Card team for each conference.
The semifinals and championship game take place from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., with each member of the winning team taking home $500,000 and being able to hoist the NBA Cup.
Viewership for the inaugural iteration of the tournament has been strong thus far, with game broadcasts on ESPN up 55% overall from the comparable windows last year. ABC will televise the championship game of the tournament on Saturday, Dec. 9 at 8:30 PM ET. Additionally, tournament games presented through NBA League Pass have seen a 42% rise in viewership as well.
For Netflix to become involved with the NBA and sports media broadcast rights in general – something it had publicly denied interest in for several years – pairing the games with original programming is thought to be the direction it would take. Moreover, it is believed that the company would aim to own its own package within a league rather than carrying a weekly game or a slate of playoff matchups.
Netflix released an ad-supported tier last year with 15 million active users per month at a price point of $22.99. While the company reportedly has some level of interest though, it will have to wait until the league’s 45-day exclusive negotiating window with ESPN and TNT concludes, which is scheduled to begin on March 9, 2024.
