As with the major football championships at home, the NBA does not escape contract negotiations to allocate its – very – juicy TV rights. The historical broadcasters remain in pole position to recover the big share of the cake in 2024, but new players also want to recover matches, namely NBC Sports… but above all Apple and Amazon. We take stock.
The universe of TV rights, a ruthless battleground between the major media groups. If we could have had a perfect example of this assertion in France with the recent allocation of the broadcasting rights of Ligue 1, which had been the fruit of a fight between Canal+ and Amazon, the NBA could also be the center important changes next year, since a new deal concerning the broadcasting of matches will be negotiated.
Small culture point before continuing. In the United States, major broadcasters such as ABC et ESPN belong to Disneywhile the Warner Bros. has on its side TNT. As you will have understood, we have just mentioned the three major NBA broadcasting channels on a national scale, which are then doubled by dozens of local broadcasters also belonging to large-scale groups (Fox Sports, Bally Sports in particular ).
Now that all of that is clear, let’s get to the bottom of the matter. In 2024, the NBA will open its negotiations for the allocation of the rights to broadcast its games. At present, the historical broadcasters are in pole position to recover what they had until today, but new players wish to invest in this juicy market. Among them ? NBC Sports, which broadcast the NBA during the 1990s until 2002, would like to make a very attractive offer to return to the heart of the big league broadcast market. Owner of the rights during the era of the explosion of the NBA, the group wants to regain its place as a major player in sport in the United States.
REPORT: “NBC Sports is prepared to make an aggressive offer to win back NBA rights after more than 20 years without them,” via @sherman4949/@CNBC.
(https://t.co/xPHfaHD4H8) pic.twitter.com/q8QrU9jLom
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) February 13, 2023
Apple and Amazon also want to get into the game. Their delivery services via streaming platforms have proven their effectiveness and Amazon already owns the rights to the NBA in Brazil. The only concern? The next negotiations are the exclusive property of the current broadcasters, who will have to voluntarily cede this exclusivity so that others are invited around the table. In 2014, the last negotiation to date, the NBA had chosen to leave these negotiations closed.and had simply assigned the rights to the broadcasters already in place.
The monstrous success of streaming could nevertheless be a game-changer, because CNBC indicates that the NBA could, regardless of the will of the broadcasters historic ones, open new batches specially dedicated to streaming. This could be a game-changer for us as well, because access to NBA games by such entities gives Apple and Amazon the opportunity to reshuffle the cards beyond the United States.. We should therefore seriously consider broadcasting NBA matches in France via these so-called platforms.
A bazaar of negotiations will open in a year, and the NBA could find itself transformed, at least in terms of its distribution on small screens. Maybe you can order LEDs and then follow up with a Grizzlies-Nets in the NBA Finals by 2026, who knows.
Source : NBC Sports