News about negotiations with ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery Channel | Wilnesh News

Exclusive media rights for the National Basketball Association Negotiation window with existing partners disney and Warner Bros. Discovery Likely to expire on Monday No new deal has been reached, people familiar with the matter said.

Starting next week, the NBA will be able to sign agreements with new partners to showcase game packages. Amazon, appleYouTube TV, ComcastNBCUniversal/Peacock and Netflix All have had preliminary conversations with the league and expressed potential interest, CNBC reported last year. The exclusive negotiating window with the league’s current partners officially ended on Monday.

An NBA spokesperson confirmed that both Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery will continue to work with the league, although no deals are expected to be announced before the deadline. The NBA hopes to bring on at least one new partner as a flagship streamer, CNBC reported last year. According to CNBC, the league hopes to have a “strong” streaming partner that will use marketing and influence to make games a priority on its platform.

“We continue to have productive discussions with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery Channel to renew our media agreements,” a spokesperson for the league said in a statement to CNBC.

Spokespeople for Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s TBS began broadcasting NBA games in 1984, and TNT began broadcasting NBA games in 1988. and has teamed up with Fox to launch a new streaming service aimed at sports fans who don’t yet pay for cable TV. The companies said earlier this year that the service would launch in the fall.

The NBA is seeking to double revenue from its previous $24 billion media rights agreement with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery Channel by adding new partners and increasing rights fees, CNBC reported last year. In 2014, during the NBA’s last negotiations, the league updated It has rights with Disney and Time Warner about five months before the exclusivity negotiating window ends. NBA Prices have also doubled to obtain its rights in the transaction from its previous agreement.

This time, discussions with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are more complicated because of the potential addition of a third party. Neither Disney nor Warner Bros. Discovery are eager to lose the rights they already own. However, the league is still seeking a significant fee increase, and neither company wants to bear the full burden of a significant increase in existing fees, according to people familiar with the matter.

That allows the league to bring in another team — maybe even two more teams. The NBA may sell its new in-season championship game package to an independent media company rather than its main new streaming partner, one of the people said.

The value of popular live sports programming increases because of its value to advertisers. While ad-free subscription streaming services have increasingly become home to popular scripted programming, sports are still primarily viewed live, forcing viewers to watch commercials.

Last year’s NBA playoffs were the highest-rated in 11 years for TNT, ABC, ESPN and NBA TV. According to Nielsen. Still, ratings for this year’s regular season have plateaued.

This year’s average TV audience was 1.56 million, down 1% from last year’s 1.59 million and the lowest in three years for ABC, ESPN and TNT. According to “Sports Media Watch”. TNT averaged 1.4 million viewers for its 65 regular-season games, the same as last year, according to a spokesperson for Warner Bros. Discovery Channel.

The first round of the NBA playoffs is about to begin Saturday.

Revealed: Comcast-owned NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

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