You know the saying, ‘the value of something is what someone is willing to pay for it?’ Most times you hear that, it is someone trying to tell you that what you have is not worth as much as you think it is. This is not the case with the NBA and their new media rights deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon, which are now reportedly in place for 11 years starting with the 2025-26 season at a whopping total of $76 billion dollars.
The $6.9 billion per season reportedly breaks down to Disney paying $2.6 billion, NBC paying $2.5 billion and Amazon paying $1.8 billion annually.
So, this case is the rare time that saying is meant for the opposite reason, where the value of something turns out to be way more than most people would think someone would be willing to pay for it. I think you will see most people lean on the side of thinking Adam Silver has struck gold here by nearly tripling the amount of the league’s current deal.
You will no doubt see things written and hear from various pundits that the NBA is a declining property and that ESPN, NBC and Prime Video overpaid big time for the media rights. You will see the numbers crunched and broken down in many different ways and it will all probably lead to a conclusion that says the league is the clear winner here, the networks the clear losers and well, we are not quite sure what it will mean for Warner Bros. Discovery and TNT.
First off, there is the whole matching part of the current agreement WBD has with the league. Who knows what the outcome of that will be. I would have to think that the actions of WBD signing smaller (much smaller) media rights deals with various sports entities recently is them being primed to be out of the NBA business. History may show it to be a great financial decision later on, but it is part of their identity, and it will take more than the French Open to make up for it.
Regardless, we know what the dollars are going to be and that means we know what the value of it is. Just keep that in mind as you listen, watch and read reaction to this story.
Frankly, I look at this simply as yet another win for sports. If you are paying attention, the networks, streamers and anyone else serving up video at scale, wants to be in the sports business. That is a good thing for the collective ‘us’ in the sports world.
If you are in sports television, you will have plenty to sell for years to come. You may struggle to hit the astronomical budgets you will have, but that beats not having sports to sell at all, doesn’t it? You can’t put the kind of money that is being put into the rights for sports broadcasts and not support it, so the resources will be there.
If you are in sports radio, you win, too, out of this. With all of the money these companies are spending to air live sports, they have to be promoting it all the time and pumping it up. This will guarantee sports is at the forefront of consumer’s minds.
There may be another way radio wins and that is through all the fragmentation of television play-by-play. While sports rights in video form are being sold to many different platforms, that is generally not the case on the audio side. Radio is going to be a lot less confusing than trying to figure out how many different services you need to subscribe to in order to follow your favorite NFL team, for example.
While I cannot for the life of me figure out how they come up with some of these figures for these media rights deals, I can’t help but just continue to think this is a good thing for sports and let the rest of it sort itself out.
Very few know the intimate details of the numbers these companies run to make their decisions on things like this. The game has changed. It isn’t just about advertising sales or just about cable subscribers anymore. The ancillary benefits of subscriptions and streaming and marketing other content and all of that has to be factored in.
No matter how you slice it or dice it, sports comes out the true winner.
Sports is King. And it’s good to be the King.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Best Thing I Heard/Watched Recently
If you read my columns, you know that I am rooting hard for Jason Puckett out in Seattle. Click here to catch up on the story of how Puckett walked from KJR after negotiating a contract extension only to find out his partner, Jim Moore, was going to be let go.
Now, they are both free to discuss what happened and to work together and that is exactly what they are doing three days per week at PuckSports.com. Moore made his first appearance on the show earlier this week and let’s just say the guys had missed working together, it was fun seeing how much fun they were having.
To watch or listen to the episode, click here.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________
In Case You Missed It
Earlier this week Peter Schwartz did a profile on Shaun Morash of WFAN. These are the stories I really enjoy. A guy who dreamed of one day working at the station he listened to and loved, climbed the ladder and now finds himself with Evan Roberts and Tiki Barber in afternoon drive on that very same station.
“I have to pinch myself sometimes that I get to live the dream that several people in college told me was completely impossible,” Morash told Schwartz. “The fact that I get to work in afternoon drive on WFAN, after a successful climbing of the ladder ten years nationally, is every New York/Long Island kid’s dream come true and it doesn’t stop here. I gotta keep grinding to make sure I sustain it.”
You can read the full feature by clicking here.
Dave Greene is the Chief Media Officer for Barrett Media. His background includes over 25 years in media and content creation. A former sports talk host and play-by-play broadcaster, Dave transitioned to station and sales management, co-founded and created a monthly sports publication and led an ownership group as the operating partner. He has managed stations and sales teams for Townsquare Media, Cumulus Media and Audacy. Upon leaving broadcast media he co-founded Podcast Heat, a sports and entertainment podcasting network specializing in pro wrestling nostalgia. To interact, find him on Twitter @mr_podcasting. You can also reach him by email at Dave@BarrettMedia.com.
I respectfully disagree sir. The deal’s domino effect–owners get $$,then players. Tickets, streaming rates GO UP. Sure a good portion will pay, but many won’t. Mark Cuban’s point on the All the Smoke podcast–the future of the game rests w/ 14 yr old that connects via social media. Faster and more fun to watch poster dunk/crossover of the night on YouTube/ IG. It’s dirt cheap and they avoid the tons of commercials ABC/ESPN/NBC/Amazon will have to run to pay off the debt. The 14 yr old isn’t paying for increased streaming fees/tickets and many parents won’t either. Especially, with no guarantee the big stars will play that night. Future fanbase (12-18yr olds) are only learning they can do without a majority of the content. Sports greedy hands will come out losing in the end. Just ask the MLB.