The NBA's next media rights deal is just around the corner, and one of the key decision-makers of the last deal just gave his thoughts about what may transpire.
Former ESPN president John Skipper spoke on the "Pablo Torre Finds Out" podcast and seemed bullish about the idea that the NBA would be able to get an increase from its current media rights deal despite the overall decline in pay TV viewership.
"The money's going to be there for the NBA," Skipper said.
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The NBA's current deal is divided with The Walt Disney Company's (DIS) -) ESPN and ABC and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports' (WBD) -) TNT and expires after the 2024-25 NBA season. Skipper was the ESPN president at the time it agreed on its last deal with the NBA in 2014, which he said was about $1.3 billion annually.
Skipper also said that when he was ESPN, he always valued the NBA more than any other bidders and he was willing to pay what he could to keep the league on ESPN airwaves.
"I just believe the NBA rights are worth $1 more than anyone else will pay for them," Skipper said. "I went into the negotiation believing I needed to win and that I needed to get those rights to maintain ESPN's status as the Worldwide Leader in Sports."
Past reports have stated that the NBA is looking for a deal that could be worth two to three times more than its current deal.
This doesn't necessarily mean the the incumbents will be doubling or tripling their payments because there could be additional partners that come in to split the pie. But it could still mean steep increases for Disney and Warner Bros., and Skipper believes the two will bite the bullet.
"These are existential rights for ESPN — they have to have the NBA. And it's pretty close to existential for TNT. I don't know if they have to have the NBA — I think they do," Skipper said.
The NBA has been a staple for the two networks for decades as ESPN has been broadcasting the NBA since 2002, while TNT began broadcasting NBA games in 1989.
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This increase comes despite the NBA's ratings stagnating over the last several years. Experts told TheStreet that there are a lot more metrics beyond ratings that determine that value of the rights. David Samson, the former Miami Marlins president who also spoke on the podcast, doubled down on this thought.
"I'm not sure that ratings actually factored anywhere into the calculation [of media rights]," Samson said.
Skipper agreed, noting that ESPN does not get "paid" for ratings outside of advertising dollars and noted that ESPN's distribution fees don't change based on ratings.
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