Currently, Walt Disney Co., home of ABC and ESPN, and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., owner of TNT, are in an exclusive negotiating window to renew their contracts with the NBA. The current deals expire in 2025, and executives at the two companies are waiting for the league to decide what packages of games it will sell. Meanwhile, just about every other major media company — and some technology giants — have expressed interest in making bids once the exclusive window ends next spring.
Currently, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery pay about $2.7 billion a year combined to broadcast NBA games to a national audience. With all the additional bidders lining up, the league is poised to rake in even more money under the next round of contracts…
To reach as many fans as possible, the league wants more games to be shown on free broadcast stations, such as ABC, NBC, Fox or CBS. And when games do appear on cable channels, which are rapidly losing subscribers, the league will likely want to air those contests on streaming services simultaneously in order to pull in additional viewers.
