Tonight in Unpacks: The NBA has a chance to parlay its young audience into not just lucrative deals but also innovative packages, reports SBJ’s Tom Friend.
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Also tonight:
- How NIL is affecting the NFL Draft
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Listen to SBJ's most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Abe Madkour closes out the week with the massive spectacle of the NFL Draft, the NHL’s record attendance figures, Indianapolis making a surprising MLS expansion bid and more.
Many possibilities for NBA media rights as market opens
The NBA media rights negotiations were always going to careen into the open market, no matter how much money incumbents Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery offered up. So it was hardly news this week when the exclusive negotiating window closed without a deal. Rather, it was the NBA’s inevitable chance to see how the other half lives.
As the major sports league with the youngest demographic in the U.S., the NBA knows its most vital constituency is of the streaming generation, meaning they’ve long envisioned a hybrid linear-digital model that could interest Amazon, Apple, NBC/Peacock, Netflix and YouTube. Out of them all, ESPN and Amazon seem the most certain candidates to capture bids for both leagues, and the Athletic reported Friday afternoon that Amazon already has the framework of a package in place with the NBA -- though a league source said no deal has been finalized -- that would include regular and postseason games.
An enticing multitiered arrangement with Amazon, for instance, could not only include a national streaming package with tentpole events such as conference finals but also elevate the league’s international reach. The NBA’s global media rights are concurrently up for renegotiation, and a league source said Amazon’s extensive worldwide audience is the exact prototype of what the league is seeking in a streaming entity, as SBJ's Tom Friend reports in this Early Access look at next week's magazine.