NBC proposed $2.5 billion a year for a spot in the league's upcoming media package — more than double the $1.2 billion sum that TNT is paying now, per the Journal. A source familiar with the negotiations told Business Insider that a deal hasn't been finalized and offers are always changing. A representative for NBC declined to comment.
While the NBA hasn't ruled out the prospect of four TV partners, media experts expect that it will opt for three so that its games aren't spread across too many networks and platforms.
And since ESPN and Amazon are nearing terms with the NBA, as Puck News and The Athletic have reported, WBD may be on the wrong end of this high-stakes game of musical chairs.
NBC's goal in landing NBA broadcast rights after a two-decade-long drought seems clear cut: secure highly valuable programming for its network and its budding streaming service, Peacock.
However, longtime media analyst Craig Moffett believes that NBC and parent company Comcast may have another brilliant, albeit aggressive, plan.
"Comcast wouldn't just advance its strategic ambitions for Peacock by acquiring the NBA rights — it would also deal a tremendous blow to WBD, which would be badly hobbled without them," Moffett told Business Insider.
By taking NBA rights from TNT, the MoffettNathanson cofounder thinks NBC could take out three birds with one stone: strengthen its own media business, weaken that of its rival, and be in a better position to acquire the struggling WBD, as some have speculated it would .
"If Comcast were to further weaken WBD by stealing away one [of] its marquee properties, they would only make the speculation louder that a combination, now on more advantaged terms, makes sense," Moffett wrote.
WBD needs a deal with the NBA much more than NBC does, Moffett said, though he added that Comcast's balance sheet gives it the firepower to outbid the smaller media firm if it desires. Still, it's not clear that paying an average of $2.5 billion a year for NBA rights will be profitable.
Joe Bonner, a media analyst at Argus Research, has been under the assumption that WBD can and will retain NBA rights even though its cable-TV revenue is steadily shrinking. After all, without NBA games, that business could fall off a cliff, jeopardizing a key part of WBD's profits.
However, pay TV is fading , Bonner said. WBD's decision on whether to match NBC's offer for the NBA will come down to whether the company believes that business is worth saving.
"WBD could compete on price if it wants to," Bonner told BI. "The real unanswerable question is, does it want to?"
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