With live sports standing as the only reliable draw to linear TV, the upcoming NBA rights package is expected to kick off a furious bidding war. But don’t count on Paramount to make a bid to bring more basketball to Paramount+ or CBS.
Speaking to investors today, CEO Bob Bakish said, “We’re actually in an excellent place where we don’t really we don’t need, nor are we active in looking at any more sports.”
Paramount+ already touts a significant sports lineup. Subscribers can watch NFL games from their local CBS station, Big Ten football, March Madness, and several soccer leagues including Serie A, Argentina Liga Profesional de Fútbol, and UEFA Champions League.
The NBA’s current carriage deal expires after the end of the 2024-25 season, but negotiations can start on March 9, 2024. The league is expected to ask a whopping $75 billion for the next 10-year deal. That will surely be split among several media companies. Paramount isn’t the only company to back out. Fox says it has no interest in the league.
Warner Bros. Discovery is expected to be one of the top bidders. It has a longstanding relationship with the NBA through TNT. Now those games are appearing on Max as well. But CEO David Zaslav is known for ruthless cost-cutting. He’s said, “We don’t have to have the NBA, and if we do a deal on the NBA, it’s going to look a lot different.” WBD may have tipped its hand, however, since the company signed TNT's “Inside the NBA” team for another decade.
You can also expect Comcast to make a ferocious bid for the league’s rights. Pulling the NBA back to NBC and adding it to Peacock would be a huge boost to both. Comcast has some extra money to burn since Disney just bought the remainder of Hulu for $8.6 billion. You may remember Comcast failed in its attempt to buy 20th Century Fox. Using Disney’s money to steal the NBA from ESPN would be sweet revenge, indeed.
Complicating this, the NBA has said it intends to offer up a group of streaming-exclusive games. That could be music to Amazon’s ears since the leaders at Prime Video would like to offer a weekly NBA showcase similar to its Thursday Night Football package. Apple TV+ has also been a big spender on sports rights, though a handful of MLB games and MLS are nothing compared to the profile of a major NBA package.
Sports have become an important driver for streaming subscriptions and, more importantly, retention. FOX went from an also-ran TV network to a must-have channel when it snagged NFL rights nearly 30 years ago. It’s possible this next NBA package could do the same for a streamer struggling to break through the clutter. As always, The Streamable will track the rights race and reveal the winners when they are announced.