Inside The Proposed $76 Billion NBA Media Rights Deals

Can you say big money? I mean, can you say huge money?

Well, one of the most fascinating sports stories of the year is not who is going to win the NBA title this year, whether LeBron will stay with the Lakers, or who will be drafted first; it is actually how many Brinks trucks Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, is going to be able to get three media partners to drive up to the NBA’s front door.

Do you remember when Tom Brady still played for the New England Patriots? Well, that’s how long the new NBA media rights deal has been discussed publically by the NBA. In fact, three years ago, CNBC reported that the NBA was looking to triple its current media rights deals, worth $24 billion over nine years. At the time of the CNBC report, there was significant doubt that a deal north of $75 billion could not be achieved because of the league's declining ratings.

With Its two current contracts with ESPN and TNT set to expire at the end of the 2024-25 season, we fast-forward to 2024, and the NBA appears to be on the verge of signing a $76 billion, eleven-year deal with three partners.  

Lucas Shaw of Bloomberg cites sources who attribute the surge in revenue to "strong demand for live sports and the emergence of new bidders."

When the NBA completes these deals, it will clearly solidify its position behind the king of sports media rights deals, the NFL, which, in 2021, signed an eleven-year deal worth over $110 billion with CBS, NBC, FOX, ESPN, and Amazon. If you will, Silver is making it clear to his bosses, the NBA owners, that, like the name of that Rhianna song, the association is set to 'Shine Bright Like A Diamond' for a very long time.

Here’s What We Know
The NBA has reportedly reached an agreement framework with ESPN and Amazon, valued at $2.6 billion and $1.8 billion per year, respectively. While these deals are not yet finalized, they are likely to close.

Amazon's deal reportedly includes “exclusive access” to a full night of NBA games each week of the regular season as part of its NBA package—no word yet on which night they have agreed to.

NBC, which last broadcast the NBA in 2001-02, has also reportedly proposed a deal worth approximately $2.5 billion for a third package, known as the “B” package of games currently held by TNT.

Now, TNT is one of the NBA’s oldest television partners and has paid an average fee of $1.2 billion in its current deal. TNT could not reach a deal with the NBA before an exclusive negotiating window expired last week, which allowed NBC to jump in with an offer.

So, as it stands, NBC has bid more than TNT. One could assume that if TNT were going to keep the “B” package, they would have closed on it before the negotiating window expired; that’s not to say that TNT will not make another offer.

It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. Whether NBC or TNT grabs the third NBA package, it's clear the huge money trucks are on their way to the NBA.