The NBA’s new television rights deal is even more monstrous than what had been anticipated.
The L is expected to announce Monday that it has re-upped with its major media partners – ESPN and Turner (TNT) – for next nine years, at a cost of a whopping $24 billion.
(The next NBA lockout should be very interesting.)
Per the NY Times:
The deals, which will be announced Monday, represent a near-tripling of the annual average rights fees that ESPN and TNT have been paying in contracts that will end after the 2015-16 season.
Rights deals keep rising without any sign of abating, as do the monthly cable bills for consumers, which have been heavily affected by skyrocketing sports rights.
The new N.B.A. deal was much anticipated and will be the first for the new commissioner, Adam Silver. There was considerable speculation that the league might carve out a package of games for Fox Broadcasting and its cable network, Fox Sports 1, but the league ultimately stuck with ESPN and TNT.
