The NBA is likely to leave its exclusive negotiating window with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery without a new media rights deal with either company, a person briefed on the negotiations confirmed. Athleticism Friday.
That window, which allowed the league to speak only to its two current rights holders before entering the open market, began March 9 and will end Monday. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said last week that conversations with these media companies were “ongoing and have been very positive.”
The league is expected to strike a new rights deal between three or four partners in its next deal, having previously split its broadcasts between ESPN/ABC and TNT. That deal, which brought the league an average of $2.7 billion annually over nine years, expires after the 2024-25 season.
The NBA will likely add a streaming component to its next deal. Amazon and NBC are considered possible new partners.
CNBC was the first to break the news.
Silver, who has long been optimistic about the NBA’s prospects for its next deal, said last week that the market “is robust right now.” The league has timed its international contracts so that it can commercialize its global rights in one fell swoop, which would allow it to be flexible in finding new media rights partners.
It also shares the rights of the WNBA in its negotiations. Current WNBA media rights agreements expire after the 2025 season. Warner Bros. Discovery has expressed interest in acquiring WNBA rights in the United States, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.
This round of NBA negotiations has already taken a different approach. Disney and Turner Sports (now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) came forward quickly ahead of the 2016 deal to take the NBA off the market to prevent the league from sending a third set of rights to Fox. This time, the NBA faces a significantly different media landscape.
Executives from Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery have all talked about a more conservative approach to spending, which could reduce the size of the package they’re willing to pay for and could pave the way for at least one additional partner to come on board. Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum said last month that he expected the NBA to add another media partner while making an appearance on “The Domonique Foxworth Show.”
“We are currently in the middle of an exclusive negotiation window,” he said. “We have been meeting with our licensees for months and they have expressed interest in a renewal, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with them. I will say this: given the changing media landscape, I think we will likely emerge from this window with at least one additional partner.”
The timing of the next media rights deal could also influence the league’s expansion. Silver has said in the past that expansion would be the next item on the NBA’s agenda after the league’s collective bargaining agreement (ratified in April 2023) and the next media deal.
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