The NBA is on the brink of reaching formal agreements with Disney, Comcast and Amazon, each of whom are said to be paying even more for the league’s rights than previously reported.
Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal reported Wednesday that the NBA is finalizing written agreements with Disney, Comcast and Amazon that could be worth as much as $7.4 billion/year. The agreements are expected to be formally agreed to within the week, at which point incumbent Warner Bros. Discovery will be presented with the opportunity to match Comcast’s bid, now said to be $2.6 billion/year instead of the previously reported $2.5.
Per Brian Steinberg of Variety, no formal agreement is expected to be announced this week.
The NBA and Warner Bros. Discovery continue to differ on what constitutes a match. The NBA is expected to argue that WBD can only match if its bid includes comparable windows and ad revenue, while WBD believes that it can match on price alone.
Per Friend, WBD president and CEO David Zazlav is believed to have “refused” to double the company’s current rights fee of $1.2 billion year during the company’s exclusive negotiating window earlier this year, expecting instead to pay $1.8-$2.1 billion.
While the drama continues to surround the contested “B” package, there is new information regarding the NBA’s other packages. Per Friend, Disney is bidding $2.8 billion/year for its “A” package that includes the NBA Finals and a conference final each year, up from the $2.6 billion that had been previously reported. (Andrew Marchand of The Athletic has since said that the Disney bid remains $2.6B/year.) At $2.8 billion/year, ESPN would double its current annual payout of $1.4 billion.
Amazon is expected to pay between $1.8 and $2.0 billion for its “C” package. As mentioned previously, the NBA is in line for as much as $7.4 billion/year, which over the course of an 11 year deal — the length that has been previously reported — would put the league at a whopping $81 billion in rights fees.
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