Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James, #23, during the NBA game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on January 7, 2024.
Jevon Moore | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images
Exclusive media rights of the National Basketball Association negotiation window with current partners Disney and Discovery by Warner Bros it is likely to expire on Monday without a new deal, according to people familiar with the matter.
Starting next week, the NBA will be able to work out deals for new game package viewing partners. Amazon, appleYouTube TV, Comcast‘s NBCUniversal/Peacock and Netflix all had preliminary talks with the league expressing possible interest, CNBC reported last year. The exclusive negotiating window with the league’s established partners officially ends on Monday.
While no deal is expected to be announced by the deadline, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery continues to work with the league on terms, an NBA spokesperson confirmed. The NBA would like to bring on at least one new partner to act as a top streamer, CNBC reported last year. The league wants a “powerful” streaming partner that will use marketing and outreach to make games a priority on its platform, CNBC reported.
“We continue to have productive discussions with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery to renew our media agreements,” a league spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.
Representatives of Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.
Warner Bros. TBS. Discovery began broadcasting NBA games in 1984 and TNT has shown NBA games since 1988. ESPN and Disney’s ABC have broadcast the NBA since 2002. The two companies have publicly expressed a desire to renew with the NBA and have joined forces with Fox launching a new streaming service aimed at sports fans who don’t already pay for cable. That service will debut in the fall, the companies said earlier this year.
A more complex arrangement
The NBA is seeking to double the $24 billion it generated from its previous media rights deal with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery adding new partners and charging more royalties, CNBC reported last year. In 2014, during the last negotiation of the NBA, the championship renewed its rights with Disney and Time Warner about five months before the end of the exclusive trading period. The NBA also doubled the price of its rights in this agreement from its previous agreement.
This time, discussions with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery is more complex due to the possible addition of a third party. Both Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery doesn’t want to lose the rights they already have. But the league is seeking a big increase in fees, and neither company wants to shoulder the full burden of paying significantly more for what it already has, according to people familiar with the negotiations.
That allows the league to bring another party — or possibly even two more. The NBA could sell its new package of in-season tournament games to a separate media company from its main new streaming partner, one of the people said.
Popular live sports programming has grown in value because of its value to advertisers. While ad-free subscription streaming services are increasingly becoming the home for popular scripted programming, sports are still mostly watched live, forcing viewers to watch commercials.
Last year’s NBA playoffs were the most watched in 11 years on TNT, ABC, ESPN and NBA TV, according to Nielsen. The 2023-24 NBA regular season averaged 1.09 million viewers, up 1 percent from last year and the highest average among the network in the last four years. according to SportsMediaWatch.
Still, regular-season viewership is up this year among standard cable and broadcast networks. Across ABC, ESPN and TNT, the average TV audience of 1.56 million was down 1 percent from 1.59 million last year and was the lowest in three years. TNT averaged 1.4 million viewers for the 65-game regular season, the same as last year, according to a Warner Bros. Discovery.
The first round of the NBA playoffs will begin on Saturday.
Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.
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