NBC plans $2.5B offer in bid to nab NBA rights from TNT: report
NY Post
NBCUniversal is planning to pay an average of about $2.5 billion a year for the rights to the NBA as fees for the league’s coveted broadcasts are set to double from current levels, according to a report Monday.
If accepted, the broadcast rights to the basketball games could change hands from TNT, which has paid an average fee of $1.2 billion under its current deal, to the Peacock network, The Wall Street Journal reported.
TNT-parent Warner Bros Discovery was unable to reach a new pact with the NBA before an exclusive negotiating window expired last week.
For Warner Bros Discovery, the loss of the NBA would be a huge blow to its TNT cable network, as well as its planned sports-streaming venture that it is launching alongside Disney and Fox.
Sources told The Journal that it would have a harder time charging distributors as much for the carriage of its channels — which they estimated to be roughly $3 a month per cable customer.
The company began airing the games in 1984 under its TBS channel before it began broadcasting them on TNT three years later. Meanwhile, Disney’s ESPN sports network began broadcasting the NBA in 2002.
