The NBA is currently in the midst of negotiations to reach terms on new media rights agreements with various distributors. Over the last two weeks, reports have stated that a framework has been reached between the league and The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC) that will result in the company retaining the NBA Finals for a reported $2.6 billion annually. Amazon also reportedly has the framework to acquire a streaming package of games worth $1.8 billion annually. NBCUniversal is reported to be bidding $2.5 billion for a slate of games of its own, which would presumably take longtime rightsholder Warner Bros. Discovery out of the mix.
John Ourand, a senior correspondent for Puck News and former reporter for Sports Business Journal, has discussed the ongoing NBA media rights negotiations over the last several months in his twice-weekly private newsletter, “The Varsity.” During a recent guest appearance on SI Media with Jimmy Traina, he spoke about the situation surrounding a third NBA media rights package and where it could land.
“If you look at the NBC bid, the thing that the NBA would like about the NBC bid is the idea that it’s going to have NBC, the broadcast television network,” Ourand said. “The thing that NBC really likes about this bid is the idea of taking exclusive games and putting it on Peacock, their streaming service, because they’re trying to build up Peacock as much as they can. And Paramount+ and Peacock and ESPN+, they’ve all found out that if you get live sports, you generate a lot of subscriptions off of that with passionate fans.”
Ourand pointed to how Peacock retained users who had signed up for its platform to watch an exclusive NFL Wild Card game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins. In fact, a study from Antenna found that among the 3 million users who paid for the service leading up to the contest, 71% of them continued their subscriptions seven weeks later.
Although Warner Bros. Discovery has yet to broadcast an NBA game exclusively on Max, it is working to grow the platform and has implemented it within its sports offerings, in addition to its linear networks (TNT, TBS, truTV) and digital platforms (Bleacher Report, House of Highlights). The company also operates the league-owned broadcast network NBA TV, which is currently distributed in 33 million homes according to data from Nielsen Media Research.
“I am very positive about Warner Bros. Discovery’s chances to keep the NBA,” Ourand stated. “I know they prioritize the NBA, I know that their NBA contracts are a big part of why TNT and TBS command so much money from the cable and satellite operators and I know that the idea that they’ve had the NBA since the 1980s is that’s part of the DNA of the company. Even though the executives haven’t been around for that long, it’s just who that company is. I believe that Warner Bros. Discovery is going to pull out all the stops in order to keep the NBA.”
Charles Barkley, who has been a studio analyst for Inside the NBA since 2000, recently expressed that he has an opt-out in the new 10-year contract he inked with Warner Bros. Discovery last year should the company lose NBA media rights. Colleagues Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Shaquille O’Neal also have these stipulations within their deals that would permit such a move. In an interview on the Dan Patrick Show on Friday morning, Barkley expressed a feeling of uneasiness at TNT Sports and that a decision is expected to come later in the day.
“I always got frustrated when ESPN changed its NBA studio show every couple of years it seemed because they were always competing against Inside the NBA,” Ourand said. “Well, Inside the NBA is barely a studio show; it’s barely an NBA show. They talk about the NBA and they show highlights, but it’s a complete entertainment show.”
Traina emphasized that the quartet is given a significant amount of freedom by TNT and often stay on until 2 a.m. EST during the NBA Playoffs. If the show was to move to NBC, it could potentially become problematic because of other programming that takes place on the linear network. Moreover, he does not believe that people would watch the show on Amazon during the regular season, although regular-season viewership of the league on ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV averaged 1.09 million viewers, which is up 1% year-over-year.
“For as long as I’ve covered this beat, broadcast television is where everybody wants to be because that has the biggest reach,” Ourand said. “Well, the NBA is looking at Netflix, and it has a reach that goes beyond our shores. It’s an international reach, and the one thing that Adam Silver has always said is, ‘We need to redefine what we view as reach.’ Something like Amazon, it’s able to reach more people, maybe a different [demographic] of people than traditional TV is used to.”
