The NBA Finals is taking place, with the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks battling for the championship. As millions of fans around the globe tune in to witness this showdown, a question remains: Which major media company has secured the privilege of broadcasting these games?
Yahoo Finance’s Alexandra Canal breaks down the details.
For more expert insight and the latest market action, click here to watch this full episode.
This post was written by Angel Smith
Video Transcript
Right now, the biggest story in the NBA is the finals between the Boston Celtics and Dallas Mavericks.
But the second biggest story would be the league’s media rights here with more is Yahoo Finance’s very own, Ale Canal Ali.
You spoke with NBA deputy commissioner earlier today.
What did he have to say?
Yeah, Mark Tatum, he did decline to comment where exactly talks today, but he noted the fragmented nature of sports and now how all the leagues are really searching for as much diversity as possible as as many platforms as they can get to reach those consumers.
So we have some interesting comments to say about that.
I want to play a little bit from our interview earlier today.
So over the last 5 to 10 years, sports consumption has been defined by an increase in optionality for the fan and ultra personalization.
And so there are more ways than ever to watch sports programming NBA content.
And what we’re trying to do is make sure that no matter where the fan is that we’re meeting them, where they are, that we’re customizing what they’re seeing, the teams are seeing the players are interested in based on their preferences.
And so uh there’s still very much a role for traditional television.
We very much like the fact that our uh finals are on traditional network television.
Um But we also understand that a new generation of fans are consuming content through streaming platforms.
And so we wanna make sure uh that we have that availability of programming and content across all different channels.
So I, I think what you’re gonna see is more of a hybrid having our games both on traditional television and streaming in an effort to reach all of our fans.
All right.
So that hybrid nature, basically the more the merrier when it comes to some of these partners.
And that’s exactly what we’re seeing play out in the negotiations.
According to the Wall Street Journal, the leak is close to finalizing deals with ESPN Comcast, Universal and Amazon.
Now, Amazon will be a streaming exclusive package, but notably, this leaves out Warner Brothers Discovery TNT Network, which has carried the game since 19 8940 years.
Right.
Yeah.
At the end of the day though, they’re just not paying up and that’s what these other networks are doing and sports content, it’s viewed as sticky, that’s inflated the rights across the board.
And now you have these tech giants like an Amazon that’s coming in and they can shell out that money, no problem, right.
So, so, you know, analysts said that’s an inherent risk for WBD, but it seems like they’re not willing to cash.
What if Warner Brothers all did not get that deal done and you really did end this relationship, which, as you know, more than 40 years, yeah, there’s been mixed reviews on the street now, for the most part, people say this would be bad because the fact that they have the NBA, it allows them to bid higher for their carriage fees or the rights that other cable networks pay to them.
So that would be a detriment to the balance sheet.
On the other hand, WBD has a lot of debt.
So if you’re talking about spending upwards of 2.5 billion, that’s a reported amount that NBC Universal is going to pay.
Is it worth it in the end?
And that is the big question.
Of course, we have that joint venture with Warner Brothers, Discovery and ESPN and Fox coming later this fall, losing this, these rights that could hinder that venture.
So I think it’s going to be a wait and see approach to see if they do lose these rights, what the lasting impact is going to drama continues.
Thank you.
Appreciate it.