No Rights Update in View as Adam Silver Preps for NBA Finals Opener

In a perfect world, commissioner Adam Silver tonight would tee up his traditional NBA Finals table-setter with an official announcement about the league’s next round of media rights deals, which—in their current embryonic state, anyway—are expected to generate some $76 billion between 2025 and 2036. The world being what it is (which is to say: resolutely imperfect), Silver likely will have to hold back on the NBA’s big reveal until after the Boston Celtics-Dallas Mavericks series wraps later this month.

As much as Silver probably hoped to have the new rights package sorted out in time for the title tilt, the offers that appear to have passed muster with the NBA remain unpapered, and contracts aren’t expected to find their way to the league office until mid-June. With a bid that works out to around $2.6 billion per season, Disney’s ESPN/ABC are a sure thing to retain the NBA’s “A” package of games, which includes the exclusive right to broadcast the Finals, while Amazon’s Prime Video is the favorite to carve out a new streaming showcase. (Given its $1.91 trillion market cap, Amazon’s $1.8 billion annual buy-in is basically a rounding error, representing less than a tenth of a percent of the company’s total value.)

While the Disney and Amazon contracts have yet to land on Silver’s desk, those offers will stick. But as has been the case since the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery closed in April of 2022, the fate of the NBA’s “B” package is less clearcut.

Having failed to reach a provisional agreement for an extension during a 45-day exclusive negotiating window earlier this spring, Warner Bros. Discovery is the odd man out. League officials are said to be over the moon about Comcast’s bold bid for the secondary TV package, which would see the NBA return to NBC Sports after what amounts to a 23-year hiatus. Little wonder: NBC has pledged an average fee of $2.5 billion a year, an investment that would give the outlet the rights to as many as 100 games per season. NBC plans to air at least half of those games on its eponymous flagship network, with the remainder to be made…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/no-rights-view-adam-silver-203433594.html

Author : Sportico

Publish date : 2024-06-06 20:34:33

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