Although the NBA Finals matchup is taking place between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks, league commissioner Adam Silver understands that the media rights negotiations are a matter of considerable public interest as well. Various reports have indicated that The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC), NBCUniversal and Amazon are poised to be the media partners for the league in its next deal, which is expected to last for 11 years and worth approximately $76 billion. Yet there remains the ambiguity surrounding Warner Bros. Discovery and its matching rights provision, along with the company’s reported effort to remain a league partner through a fourth media rights package.
Silver fielded questions pertaining to the negotiations and resolution surrounding these broadcasts, declining to expand on the Warner Bros. Discovery situation because of its standing as a “complex legal issues.” Sources told Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal that the NBA does not believe Warner Bros. Discovery can match a bid from Amazon because of its standing as a preeminent streaming service. Moreover, there have been questions if the company could match the NBCUniversal bid since it does not have a broadcast network.
“On the one hand from a league standpoint, it’s fantastic to be liked and to be wanted to and to have multiple suitors [for the media rights],” Silver said, “but at the same time, it makes me uncomfortable that it’s zero sum; that at the end of the day, there’s only going to be so many television packages.”
Charles Barkley, studio analyst for Inside the NBA, has expressed on numerous occasions that he is concerned for the people who work behind the scenes regarding what will happen to their jobs should TNT lose the NBA. Moreover, he has shared that he is able to opt out of his contract with the company if it no longer broadcasts the NBA, and sources have indicated that colleagues Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Shaquille O’Neal have that ability as well. Within his remarks ahead of Game 1, Silver acknowledged that the people working at Warner Bros. Discovery seem to be the most impacted by these negotiations and apologized towards the prolonged nature of the process.
“No one likes this uncertainty,” Silver said, “and I think it’s on the league office to bring these negotiations to a head and conclude them as quickly as we can.”
Silver also stated that he is aware that the process has been long and that it is something the league hopes to conclude “in the relative near term.” At the same time though, the league is trying to make an informed decision as to its best path forward amid a rapidly evolving media environment with new functionalities and verticals through which to consume content.
“It’s complicated for several reasons,” Silver outlined. “One is the advent of new platforms, particularly streaming. It’s complicated with multiple partners all seeking similar assets and just trying to figure out the right way to balance those games as they go to different partners, and we tend to do long-term deals. We think that’s good for the stability of the league, but it means to a certain extent you’re trying to predict the future, which of course is impossible.”
Although Silver spoke about the decline of cable viewership and usage as consumers around the United States continue to cut the cord, he stated that the league values having the NBA Finals on the ABC broadcast network. Through what has been reported pertaining to the outcome surrounding the NBA media rights package, the league seems to have adopted a multifaceted approach wherein it will be present across several forms of visual media.
“Traditional cable – it’s not going away, but it’s continuing to decrease, and then streaming platforms are seeing accelerated growth, particularly around premium live sports,” Silver said. “So we’re sort of trying to put a foot, a hand, a finger in every one of these buckets.”
