As teams within the National Basketball Association approach the playoffs, the final live game broadcast of the league by TNT Sports platforms draws closer. The league announced 11-year media rights deals with The Walt Disney Company, Comcast Corporation and Amazon that will take effect beginning next season, reportedly worth a collective $76 billion that distributes games across broadcast, cable and streaming television. Warner Bros. Discovery was unable to retain U.S. live game rights to the league, a fate that was materialized a few months after TNT Sports chairman and chief executive officer Luis Silberwasser said at its annual Upfront event that the company looked forward to “reaching an agreement that makes sense for all the parties.”
Warner Bros. Discovery will nonetheless continue to work with the league in a partnership that grants it rights to promulgate NBA content on the Bleacher Report and House of Highlights digital platforms. On top of that, the company will also have free access to league highlights for the next 11 years and the chance to distribute games in some overseas markets. David Zaslav, the president and chief executive officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, recently stated that not doing the NBA deal was “a great decision” for the company and that the company could invest the money into other content.
The company has continued to add sports rights to its portfolio over the last year, reaching deals with properties such as NASCAR, the Big East Conference and Roland-Garros. Furthermore, TNT Sports will continue to broadcast the NHL, MLB and Unrivaled Basketball, along with select College Football Playoff games under a sublicensing agreement with ESPN. Silberwasser reflected on the progress and divulged that TNT Sports is “always open” for opportunities as they percolate so long as they make sense for the company.
“Clearly, I don’t pretend to say that not having the NBA is important,” Silberwasser explained during a recent appearance on The Varsity podcast. “Having the NBA was very important for us, but we’re very pleased with where we ended up because now you have a portfolio that it has more diversity and that it’s sort of always on, and has a variety, I think, that I think it’s going to be really interesting as we navigate those objectives. Whether it’s to defend our linear networks or whether it’s to grow Max, we have things in our portfolio and sports rights that are very valuable for different types of sports fans.”
Silberwasser delineated two negotiations taking place surrounding NBA rights, one being the actual conversations surrounding the rights and the other being what was occurring in the press. When the company reached the conclusion of its exclusive negotiating window without a deal, he could tell that things were going sideways but maintained that the media conglomerate always had interest in retaining the league rights.
“I think what helped us through this was that we were very disciplined in our modeling, our financials,” Silberwasser said. “We knew exactly what we needed to do or what we could do, and it was trying to find this combination of, ‘What’s the right price and the right package?’ I think everybody, us and ESPN, we knew that we were going to have a lower or a lesser quantity in terms of the package and that we were going to have to pay more. But the question is like, ‘How much more?,’ and, ‘How less is that package?,’ and so we were always very clear about what we wanted.”
Although Silberwasser felt there were paths to a deal on several occasions, he eventually evinced that the balance between the price of rights and the package of events was moving in the wrong direction. In the end, the company recognized that it should not be doing the deal and contextualized the numbers as becoming “completely irrational.” Even though Silberwasser does not want to speak for the league, he acknowledged that it had their objectives and knew the right balance for them.
“At the end of the negotiation, some of the changes in the package and the conditions made it really impossible for us to move forward,” Silberwasser said. “And then once it was sort of outside the negotiation exclusive window, then you had sort of all the players come in, and then it became much more difficult.”
Silberwasser added that the company wanted to exercise its matching rights clause on the Amazon deal because of the balance between cost and the package itself, but it did not end up landing the package. In the end, Silberwasser stated that he “really like[s] the outcome” and the financial flexibility it is providing for the company. The two sides reached a legal settlement that cleared the path for the survival of Inside the NBA, which will continue to be produced by TNT Sports but presented on Disney platforms under a sublicensing deal with ESPN. Warner Bros. Discovery subsequently reached new carriage agreements with Charter Communications and Comcast that reportedly kept affiliate fees for TNT flat.
“We invested so many years and sweat, blood and tears on crafting that show and producing that show that I think it’s really cool that we’re going to be able to keep doing it and that sort of very special talent – Ernie and Shaq and Chuck and Kenny – continue to be with us and that the life of the show will continue, and they continue to work with us and trying to do other projects as well,” Silberwasser said. “So I think it’s one of those rare examples where I think everybody kind of won here.”
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