Hard Truths Behind the NBA Deal for Buyers — and the NFL
Peacock won, Disney didn't, Amazon math, football's dilemma and a Zaslav defense
Among professional sports leagues, the NBA seems to have far and away the best PR apparatus. They tend to generate extremely positive headlines — and often those headlines don’t match the actual reality.
This extends beyond the league itself to the entire media world surrounding pro basketball, and yes, I am the one mostly casting doubt on the NBA’s cultural clout. I don’t think LeBron James’ production company, SpringHill, is worth more than $750 million (and if that valuation is propping up his billionaire status . . . well yeah). Not only have sports documentaries and scripted shows flopped but TV shows about basketball, in particular, have a bad track record!
Now we have the new NBA media rights deal and its designed-to-wow $76 billion headline number. Does it live up to the hype? Today I’ll explain why this deal — heralded as a masterstroke for both the league and its partners Disney, Comcast and Amazon — is merely “fine.” There are some huge potential pitfalls that largely have not been covered.
The Wakeup’s Sean McNulty put together a great summary of what the NBA sold. That leaves the fun part for us today: deciding the winners and losers of this new deal.
So let’s explore:
Comcast and Disney’s deals look very similar, so why is one company a winner and the other a loser?
How Peacock needs to be taken a lot more seriously with the NBA
Just how did one of the world’s most valuable companies get the best bargain
Why the gaudy $76 billion price tag for all rights is not as impressive as it appears
How piracy could severely diminish the impact of whatever benefits accrue to Amazon, Comcast and Disney
Why the WNBA and NFL are likely to extract much higher rights fees out of media companies as a result of this NBA deal
A dealmaker’s defense of Warner Bros. Discovery and its CEO David Zaslav