Why Streaming More Games on ESPN+, Max Could Complicate the NBA’s Next Big Broadcasting Payday
Why Streaming More Games on ESPN+, Max Could Complicate the NBA’s Next Big Broadcasting Payday
The NBA is about to cash in. The league is currently determining how best to package its games for sale in its next round of negotiations with broadcasters and is seeking billions of dollars more in its next deal than the $2.7 billion per season it secured in its last TV contract with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery.
The NBA rights go on the market following the 2024-25 season, and reporting from Bloomberg confirms other stories from the past few months which indicate that the league is looking for a big raise. Sports media consultant Ed Desser, who has been involved in the NBA’s past negotiations, says the league will almost certainly secure the big pile of cash it’s looking for.
“I would expect NBA rights to more than double and potentially quite a bit more,” Desser told Bloobmerg.
WBD and Disney are currently in exclusive negotiating windows with the league, awaiting word on what packages of games will be sold. Options could potentially include a streaming-only bundle of games, as the NBA is reportedly looking to expand its reach with younger audiences.
If that comes to pass, it would certainly rankle cable and satellite providers, who are clinging to live sports desperately as they lose more and more viewers. But the real kicker for cablers comes from the news that the league is looking to put more games on free broadcast channels like ABC in its next deal and that it wants games airing on cable to also have a simultaneous streaming alternative for cord-cutters.
For some media outlets like Disney, this stipulation would be workable. Disney owns the most popular cable sports channel of them all in ESPN, but it also has streaming platforms like ESPN+ to make use of. Even if the league demands that its games are put on a streamer with more reach like Hulu or Disney+, there seems to be definite room for accommodation.
WBD will have to walk a tighter rope, however. It doesn’t have any free broadcast channels to show games on, as Disney does with ABC, and its new streaming platform Max is essentially untested when it comes to streaming live sports. WBD executives have confirmed their interest in retaining NBA rights, but it might be a hard sell for the league to try to get all games broadcast on TNT simulcast on Max.
Cable providers are the ones that seem likely to register the loudest protest at this proposal from the NBA, however. Cablers rely on big-time sports like the NBA and NFL to keep viewers subscribed, and giving people another way to watch games that will likely be cheaper and won’t lock them into long-term contracts would be a major blow to an industry that is already seemingly on its last legs.
Unfortunately for cable and satellite, the numbers indicate the league might be wise to insist on such a provision in its next deal. The NBA’s out-of-market games streaming platform NBA League Pass doubled its subscriber total last season, and a recent report showed that even the biggest cable sports channels were losing viewers at an alarming rate.
Linear TV and its advertising dollars are still a big draw for sports leagues, but the NBA knows that younger viewers are less likely to watch cable TV in general. That’s why it’s trying to pursue a best-of-both-worlds contract that offers plenty of streaming options in addition to games on broadcast and cable TV. But network owners, and especially cable and satellite providers might be difficult to convince, even though the data indicates that customers aren’t committed to watching games on TV in the long term.
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