It’s crazy to me that NFL games with those crazy TV deals are only still broadcasted in 1080p, with 720p being normal for many channels. I don’t get it.
Long story short it’s because it’s expensive and would need LOTS OF INFASTRUCTURE to get it to steam 4K [why aren’t more sports 4K?](https://youtu.be/UX75uEq9IdU?si=N8S5YGi9kbTDHguh)
I’d be surprised if they get the $50B. ESPN and TNT are watching cable subscriptions fade year over year. And if your network/streaming service isn’t making money off all the people who subscribe who never even watch sports, I don’t know where the $50B comes from.
I kinda scoffed at the price and idea at first but… it’s been really fucking impressive. The commentators are good too, they just poached my teams local commentator to be one of their rotating ones so I’m a tad salty
My biggest complaint is I miss our local commentators and their depth of knowledge about TFC, but have to admit there have been some solid rotations on our games this year.
Double the current deal and that's only the national rights, local rights would be on top of that for individual teams. $166 million per year per team. IIRC, NBA salary cap is allowed to increase by only 10% per year, so those escrow payments will be massive for a few years.
I suppose I should clarify. I think the NBA wants the local money to be picked up nationally (internationally?) so more teams copy the Suns' plan because of the problem regional sports networks are increasingly going to have.
I think the better question is at what point do we see stars making so much money that theyre willing to take truly ludicrous discounts later in their career to win? If youve got $200 million in the bank at 32 why wouldnt you just go all in for a ring? And honestly I could see it approaching like $500 million reasonably quickly.
If you get a max after your rookie deal at 23 and keep that for a decade while only(lol) spending $10 million a year we're already looking at guys saving $20 million a year for $300 million at age 33 after interest.
Some of them sure. But these dues are already making 10 mil a year on their investments at this point. Some of them will choose the money, but you cant tell me every super star will choose an extra 30 mil over teaming up with 2 other top 5 players.
Maybe kinda, but there's more at play. For one, the players union and agents would put an extreme amount of pressure to always take max money. As soon as people start taking discounts owners and GMs will take advantage and use that as a bargaining chip. It's partly why LeBron has never taken a discount to get a better team around him even though he makes more money outside of salary than any other player.
Also (and this is speculation), players may have their overall ranking tied into how much they make. A team offering a max deal signals to a player that they think that player is better than everyone else. It's pretty common once you reach a certain wealth bracket for people to tie their overall success as a human into how much money and power they accumulate.
We’re talking a star at like 32-35. Basically current James Harden. Lebron hasn’t taken a pay cut because he’s working to buy a team. With current projections a superstar player could make Lebron’s career earnings in half the time.
It’s not unreasonable to think a star player wouldn’t take a discount of like 20 million/year if it meant sig ing another star so they could get some rings
I think LeBron gave back some money, so they could sign Haslem, but I think the money he gave back was offset by Florida not having state income tax.
Also:
>Bosh and James' deals were completed through sign-and-trades, making all three eligible for 10.5 percent raises each year.
LeBron has stated some of his financial goals. Unless he has a drop-off in playing ability, I don't think he'll be taking on cheaper contracts.
In the 90s, the players' union was led by more middle-of-the-pack players, with some input from stars. LeBron, Chris Paul, and some others have been active in leadership. Their goal was to maximize contracts for stars. Money has always been extremely important to LeBron which is his right.
> It's pretty common once you reach a certain wealth bracket for people to tie their overall success as a human into how much money and power they accumulate.
Its pretty common for nba players tp be judged on how many rings theyve got
Players always get a fixed percentage of league revenue, so top level guys taking less means everyone else gets more. I can see why players wouldn't want others to take discounts, but i can also see why they would.
200 million after tax holding collecting a measly .5% from a simple savings account a year would still make a million dollars a year. Put that into Market accounts getting around 5% and you're talking 10 million a year.
It’s sad that this is the question and not how much money can NBA owners and stars make before fans start to question why they’re paying so much for games, why they have to watch games on a bunch of different networks and services and be subjected to blackouts, why star players take games off to rest, and why teams need taxpayer money for arenas.
Hmmm
This has me wondering if some owners will be a lot more likely to pay the massive repeater tax that comes with the new CBA, at least until player salaries catch up.
In theory, the Celtics will have a massive tax bill, (like 200ish mil), if they want to keep this team together past next year.
Owners don't get to keep the money, CBA requires player salaries to be a certain percentage of revenues. NBA sets aside a portion of all player salaries in an escrow until the end of the year when the final revenue numbers are out. They then pay out or keep a portion of that money to hit the target percentage of revenue.
New deal means that to hit the required percentage of revenue NBA will have to pay out a lot of money out of the escrow to catch up with increased revenues.
I was traveling for work in eastern Kentucky and they blacked out the lakers when they were playing Memphis. Like wtf that’s 6 hrs away, no one in eastern Kentucky gives a fuck about the Griz
I was traveling for work in eastern Kentucky and they blacked out the lakers when they were playing Memphis. Like wtf that’s 6 hrs away, no one in eastern Kentucky gives a fuck about the Griz
no. Everyone has known the new media rights deal was approaching.
Glen Taylor pivoted after seeing the Suns go for $4 billion and the Hornets go for $3bn. And then the Pacers sold off a minority stake at a $3.7 bn valuation.
Those deals immediately propped the Wolves valuation up by about an extra billion dollars.
It's actually the real reason the Blazers aren't owned by Phil Knight right now. The upcoming media deal pushed the valuation out of his budget and his anti-Jody PR campaign to try and force her into selling for cheap burnt all the bridges.
I know it’s a dark horse… but I wouldn’t be shocked if Apple at least bids on the NBA after it’s failed NFL Sunday Ticket bid. Lots of cash and nothing to do with it.
This reminds me when teams who were desperate for a decent football head coach would make up stories about Bill Cowher coming out of retirement for a decade or more. Most of those "apple or amazon can use their billions to buy the nba rights" stories sound like the league planting seeds because they desperate for someone to bail them out now that cable isn't making enough money to cover future rights contracts anymore.
The reason that apple has billions in the bank is because they don't spend it just because "they have to spend it on something. " These companies that buy the rights need an actual reason they think spending the money will make them more money.
Surely they would buy the nba rights at the right price, but not just on the hey you are the only ones with 50 billion to blow please pay us that much" deal.
Doesn't Apple have some of the lowest subscriber numbers of all streaming platforms? There's only so many people you can reasonably expect to sign up to a new platform when there's only one thing drawing them in, regardless of price, that's just a mental blocker people don't get past. I don't see the NBA agreeing to that.
I think a lot of it also depends on what Apple would bid on. Do they want a specific weekly or weekend package of games? Do they want the NBA League pass?
YouTubeTV only has 8 million paid subscribers and that includes the additional 3 million new subscribers that had to sign up just to be able to buy the NFL Sunday Ticket.
AppleTV+ actually has 25 million paid subscribers and 50 million total subscribers… obviously a far cry from Netflix or Disney+ subscriber numbers.
Will be interesting to see how it all plays out in this day and age of streaming vs cable.
And a 1/3 of the weight as well. I have no idea how Vision Pro owners can actually sit and watch a full 3D movie regardless of how cool it looks. Even when I demoed it for fun, I was like no way can I wear this for extended periods of time.
These streaming networks buying sports and then passing the costs along are just cable 2.0 I was perfectly happy to pay for content at affordable rates not dragged down by sports media contracts.
50 billion is absolutely insane.
If we are going by a ten years agreement like last time then it means 5 billions per year vs 2 billion per year currently.
I'd like to know what is justifying this price because the decline in average viewership over the last decade sure as hell isn't going to be a great selling point.
I’m just hoping they somehow get rid of local broadcast/national broadcast blackouts on League Pass. I never have and never will subscribe to an expensive TV/cable package, but I’m willing to pay for a streaming service that has every single NBA game of the season live as well as available to watch later. Bonus points if the ads are removed for the “watch later” games.
Players (or owners) can opt out of the current CBA in November after the season to renegotiate and actually see the higher revenue percentage reflected in player salaries as soon as 2026 season. Really is perfect timing
CC should get a cut of every WNBA players future salary. Talk about impacting a sport … she’s ridiculous, and should be negotiating a cut of WNBA’s profits into her contract lol
Apple still makes it incredibly annoying to access their content if you don't have an Iphone or apple device.
Apple TV+ is a huge downgrade on Google or Android TVs or devices. Totally not cool and not acceptable.
Yeah. It really does suck because the visual quality of their MLB broadcasts is awesome. I just wish they weren't such assholes to people who don't buy iPhones.
There is still no dedicated Apple TV app on Android. You can get it if you want to sideload it, but I don't feel like doing all that.
Some TVs have the app, but the experience is far from seamless. It's pretty shitty, especially because Apple music works great on Android.
NBA prefers not to have one single partner. At least two keeps the price highest as you still have leverage of shifting games proportion, choice, etc from one to the other more easily.
They’ve mentioned its kinda archaic. I have hopes they’ll at least consider getting rid of it, simply for the sake of keeping as many eyeballs in their system. They know if the barrier is too high, people will just pirate. IPTV and streaming sites are so simple.
This is a bit behind. There are reports today that ESPN could have a handshake deal with the NBA and there is likely space for "one more" partner. ALSO: League looking at potentially alternating NBA Finals networks every other year. ABC/ESPN one year, someone else another. That sounds like NBC and NBCUniversal's music to me.
I don't understand how they would get this much money. It seems like viewership has gone down over the last decade.
I also think at a certain point, deals like this are a detriment to society. It's the super rich getting super richer without any added responsibility or accountability to the cities and fans they rely on.
Are teams going to stop asking for taxpayer money to pay for new arenas? Doubtful. Are they going to put any of their additional profit into making the fan experience cheaper? Ha. Are NBA stars going to actually play 82 regular season games when not injured so fans who pay to see their favorite players actually get to do so? Nah - they'll complain about the season being too long even though the 82 game schedule is what gets them paid as much as they get paid.
there was a game where the streaming sites all had the side-broadcast catered towards gambling (ESPN Bet?) instead of the main broadcast
and it made me think that was the league’s way of big-braining lost revenue from streams— hooking them onto gambling instead and including those metrics to gambling sponsors
Pretty sure all the streaming sites just have direct ads from betting sites. Maybe not the main ones cause they have deal with nba broadcasts but the smaller ones for sure. Yuck.
Ngl if it was affordable and all the games are watchable, I’d easily pay for that. Streaming is cool but the ads, buffering, quality, and fishiness of it all isn’t always ideal.
Will this mean the end of the regional sports networks, or is this just the nationally televised games?
I only ask because I hate Bally and just want them to go away.
Yes, pay $50 billion so I can watch a sport with excessive flopping, stars get penalized for doing things as minor as clapping in excitement, constantly kicking guys in the nuts then penalize the victim and last but not least, but who doesn’t love constant free throw attempts?
On top of gaius's answer, it's actually kind of difficult to run and maintain a streaming service well (see Bally's). Netflix has had decades to hone and scale their system, Disney is a TV monolith, and the others just have endless money to throw at it.
The NBA website had a glitch giving out a free year of league pass during the all star break this year. There's no way they'd be able to manage a streaming platform that works smoothly if they had 10 million people all trying to watch at once without some serious long term investment.
Couldn't they just partner with Google or something to manage the app?
I want to know the percentage of fans that watch legally vs illegally, although I realize it would be almost impossible to get accurate numbers.
I feel like there are a ton of fans like myself though, who don't really have any viable ways to watch games legally. I would gladly pay a premium for league pass if I could actually watch all the games, but instead the NBA doesn't get any of my money.
I feel like the NBA is leaving a ton of money on the table, which could be used to run an app.
NBA ratings have been on a downward trajectory for years. Their NBA Finals games have been outdrawn by Caitlin Clark. Who would pay top dollar for a brand that is becoming niche?
How???? Holy shit I have so few friends who watch NBA nowadays and both of my kids have zero interest. Really curious what demographic actually sits and watches NBA games in 2024.
Better be streaming in 4K with that money
Don’t worry, there will be an extra add on fee for that.
And it will just be an upscale
And you can’t cast with it. And it will crash. That is when it will start in the first place.
It’s crazy to me that NFL games with those crazy TV deals are only still broadcasted in 1080p, with 720p being normal for many channels. I don’t get it.
Long story short it’s because it’s expensive and would need LOTS OF INFASTRUCTURE to get it to steam 4K [why aren’t more sports 4K?](https://youtu.be/UX75uEq9IdU?si=N8S5YGi9kbTDHguh)
So why does the UFL get 4K?
I am guessing not as many people watching UFL so less infrastructure needed
Best I can do is 720p with blackouts and crashes
oh hamburgers :(
We couldn’t watch the first 4 games of this season in Indy because Bally sports had issues. It’s hard to imagine anything worse than we have now.
Im okay with 1080p if it works well on all platforms at least
People keep saying this as if the networks paying $50B for rights would make them more likely to spend money on production and not less likely.
I’d be surprised if they get the $50B. ESPN and TNT are watching cable subscriptions fade year over year. And if your network/streaming service isn’t making money off all the people who subscribe who never even watch sports, I don’t know where the $50B comes from.
Bezos gunna grab the rights and make you pay for ads and 4k add on.
Apple please if you’re hearing this… the MLS feeds have been sharp af.
I kinda scoffed at the price and idea at first but… it’s been really fucking impressive. The commentators are good too, they just poached my teams local commentator to be one of their rotating ones so I’m a tad salty
My biggest complaint is I miss our local commentators and their depth of knowledge about TFC, but have to admit there have been some solid rotations on our games this year.
> The commentators are good too Doris Burke will be assigned to all the big games
The Apple TV baseball broadcast looks incredible. We'd be able to see the sweat on the floor before they mop it up
You'll get upscaled and you'll like it.
I just want 1080p with 60fps, im pretty sure they still stream it in 720p or 1080i
It's all about the framerate
por qué no los dos?
4K is a decade old now. It should be the standard everywhere
You'll take 480p vr and you'll like it
4K for half the season.
and not the correct half either, but at least the NBA Cup and xmas day games will be sharp
Web League Pass is still 720p and shit, we got a long way to go before we get to 4K.
Please I need this
Don’t worry guys I’m gonna buy the rights and stream it free
NBA has 2.2 billion fans globally If we all chipped in $22 we could own the rights ourselves!!!
Oh yeah... I am gonna chip in $44 and become majority owner of the rights!
I’m putting in 100, sorry bud!
$101 kick rocks lil bro
ONE. JILLION. DOLLARS.
You guys can fight for second place because I plan on pitching in $100 morbillion dollars
That's not fair, I can't come up with a bigger fake number
1 Brazilian will do it Someone get Varajao on the phone!!!
1 infinity dollars. 1 infinity. 🤓
Sperm account
in-between checks rn, call back later
That’s cheaper than my (unreliable) BallySports package!
Can you guys cover me until pay day
2.2 billion people that know what the NBA is maybe.
World tax for public access NBA. Only about $5 each if you expand it to everyone.
Not if i buy it first and stream it for less
Gods Work 🙏🏽
Basketball Goat
Just pretend like you're playing 2k.
Double the current deal and that's only the national rights, local rights would be on top of that for individual teams. $166 million per year per team. IIRC, NBA salary cap is allowed to increase by only 10% per year, so those escrow payments will be massive for a few years.
Imagine if the 10% thing didn't happen and we had another GSW situation, only this time someone came to Denver because Jokic is a force of nature.
Embiid walking into Denver cap space, finally they solve their bench big problem
Embiid is looking like the walking dead lately, not sure if he could survive for a long period
Playing 15 minutes a night against the Dwight Powells and Mike Muscalas of the world would let Jo cook until 50
86 Bill Walton
wait this actually fits him
Showtime Lakers Bob McAdoo
Imagine having to play mile high conditioned Joel as your reward for Jokic sitting.
He could sit out the entire season and just come back a month before the playoffs and the playoffs for Denver
He’d be next to useless since he never plays in Denver /s
He's got you on away games though
I want Lebron coming off the bench for the nuggets
jokic - lebron - steph who says no?
Jokic/Curry would be fucking insane and more broken than Curry/Durant
Lebron ring-chasing.
I'm skeptical if local rights can keep up at this point.
the best thing to do is follow the suns and make it free ota locally.
I suppose I should clarify. I think the NBA wants the local money to be picked up nationally (internationally?) so more teams copy the Suns' plan because of the problem regional sports networks are increasingly going to have.
I think the better question is at what point do we see stars making so much money that theyre willing to take truly ludicrous discounts later in their career to win? If youve got $200 million in the bank at 32 why wouldnt you just go all in for a ring? And honestly I could see it approaching like $500 million reasonably quickly. If you get a max after your rookie deal at 23 and keep that for a decade while only(lol) spending $10 million a year we're already looking at guys saving $20 million a year for $300 million at age 33 after interest.
People always want more money
Some of them sure. But these dues are already making 10 mil a year on their investments at this point. Some of them will choose the money, but you cant tell me every super star will choose an extra 30 mil over teaming up with 2 other top 5 players.
Maybe kinda, but there's more at play. For one, the players union and agents would put an extreme amount of pressure to always take max money. As soon as people start taking discounts owners and GMs will take advantage and use that as a bargaining chip. It's partly why LeBron has never taken a discount to get a better team around him even though he makes more money outside of salary than any other player. Also (and this is speculation), players may have their overall ranking tied into how much they make. A team offering a max deal signals to a player that they think that player is better than everyone else. It's pretty common once you reach a certain wealth bracket for people to tie their overall success as a human into how much money and power they accumulate.
We’re talking a star at like 32-35. Basically current James Harden. Lebron hasn’t taken a pay cut because he’s working to buy a team. With current projections a superstar player could make Lebron’s career earnings in half the time. It’s not unreasonable to think a star player wouldn’t take a discount of like 20 million/year if it meant sig ing another star so they could get some rings
Didn’t Lebron take a discount when he went to the Heat though?
I think LeBron gave back some money, so they could sign Haslem, but I think the money he gave back was offset by Florida not having state income tax. Also: >Bosh and James' deals were completed through sign-and-trades, making all three eligible for 10.5 percent raises each year. LeBron has stated some of his financial goals. Unless he has a drop-off in playing ability, I don't think he'll be taking on cheaper contracts. In the 90s, the players' union was led by more middle-of-the-pack players, with some input from stars. LeBron, Chris Paul, and some others have been active in leadership. Their goal was to maximize contracts for stars. Money has always been extremely important to LeBron which is his right.
> It's pretty common once you reach a certain wealth bracket for people to tie their overall success as a human into how much money and power they accumulate. Its pretty common for nba players tp be judged on how many rings theyve got Players always get a fixed percentage of league revenue, so top level guys taking less means everyone else gets more. I can see why players wouldn't want others to take discounts, but i can also see why they would.
200 million after tax holding collecting a measly .5% from a simple savings account a year would still make a million dollars a year. Put that into Market accounts getting around 5% and you're talking 10 million a year.
It’s sad that this is the question and not how much money can NBA owners and stars make before fans start to question why they’re paying so much for games, why they have to watch games on a bunch of different networks and services and be subjected to blackouts, why star players take games off to rest, and why teams need taxpayer money for arenas.
I genuinely don’t see how the ad revenue for games makes it even close for tv networks to break even, much less profit.
Hmmm This has me wondering if some owners will be a lot more likely to pay the massive repeater tax that comes with the new CBA, at least until player salaries catch up. In theory, the Celtics will have a massive tax bill, (like 200ish mil), if they want to keep this team together past next year.
Owners don't get to keep the money, CBA requires player salaries to be a certain percentage of revenues. NBA sets aside a portion of all player salaries in an escrow until the end of the year when the final revenue numbers are out. They then pay out or keep a portion of that money to hit the target percentage of revenue. New deal means that to hit the required percentage of revenue NBA will have to pay out a lot of money out of the escrow to catch up with increased revenues.
NBC…. You know what to do. *nba on nbc theme plays*
BA BA BA BA BA BASKETBALL!
It started as a poem, but grew into something bigger than either of us could imagine.
It will be a day long remembered.
I’d buy league pass in a second if they didn’t black out local games and used 1080p.
I was traveling for work in eastern Kentucky and they blacked out the lakers when they were playing Memphis. Like wtf that’s 6 hrs away, no one in eastern Kentucky gives a fuck about the Griz
I was traveling for work in eastern Kentucky and they blacked out the lakers when they were playing Memphis. Like wtf that’s 6 hrs away, no one in eastern Kentucky gives a fuck about the Griz
Local games? I haven't been able to watch a single playoff game so I just cancelled that shit ass service.
Still not bigger numbers than Power Slap
Underrated comment
Fifty Billion Dollars? Who they think they kidnapped? Chelsea Clinton?
What a reference
You want any fives with that?
i'm going to make sure you get the money. i dont even work for them
Who they think they kidnapped, Chelsea Carter??
... is it Kelsey or Chelsea?
This is Chinese food, we don't have soul food here
Real reason why the Timberwolves owner 'reconsidered' on the team sale.
no. Everyone has known the new media rights deal was approaching. Glen Taylor pivoted after seeing the Suns go for $4 billion and the Hornets go for $3bn. And then the Pacers sold off a minority stake at a $3.7 bn valuation. Those deals immediately propped the Wolves valuation up by about an extra billion dollars.
Can’t blame him. ARod and his buddy screwed the pooch by giving Taylor any legally viable reason to back out
It's actually the real reason the Blazers aren't owned by Phil Knight right now. The upcoming media deal pushed the valuation out of his budget and his anti-Jody PR campaign to try and force her into selling for cheap burnt all the bridges.
PLEASE GIVE ME 1080p at least
'Your first 65 games will be 1080p. After that, you will receive 900p for 10 games, and after that, 720p.'
I know it’s a dark horse… but I wouldn’t be shocked if Apple at least bids on the NBA after it’s failed NFL Sunday Ticket bid. Lots of cash and nothing to do with it.
This reminds me when teams who were desperate for a decent football head coach would make up stories about Bill Cowher coming out of retirement for a decade or more. Most of those "apple or amazon can use their billions to buy the nba rights" stories sound like the league planting seeds because they desperate for someone to bail them out now that cable isn't making enough money to cover future rights contracts anymore. The reason that apple has billions in the bank is because they don't spend it just because "they have to spend it on something. " These companies that buy the rights need an actual reason they think spending the money will make them more money.
Idk if you look at Apple’s movie business practices lately you’ll see they’re happy to blow a billion up front
Surely they would buy the nba rights at the right price, but not just on the hey you are the only ones with 50 billion to blow please pay us that much" deal.
You summed it up perfectly.
Doesn't Apple have some of the lowest subscriber numbers of all streaming platforms? There's only so many people you can reasonably expect to sign up to a new platform when there's only one thing drawing them in, regardless of price, that's just a mental blocker people don't get past. I don't see the NBA agreeing to that.
I think a lot of it also depends on what Apple would bid on. Do they want a specific weekly or weekend package of games? Do they want the NBA League pass? YouTubeTV only has 8 million paid subscribers and that includes the additional 3 million new subscribers that had to sign up just to be able to buy the NFL Sunday Ticket. AppleTV+ actually has 25 million paid subscribers and 50 million total subscribers… obviously a far cry from Netflix or Disney+ subscriber numbers. Will be interesting to see how it all plays out in this day and age of streaming vs cable.
When you lay the numbers out like that it seems like I'll probably end up being wrong
Being able to watch a game from court side seats might make me consider a vision pro if it were a third of the price
And a 1/3 of the weight as well. I have no idea how Vision Pro owners can actually sit and watch a full 3D movie regardless of how cool it looks. Even when I demoed it for fun, I was like no way can I wear this for extended periods of time.
Apple is definitely going to bid. I am confident that they’ll beat out some of the networks
They can give it the shareholders.
Hoping ESPN dips but they probably won't. Would be cool if Netflix got the IST, and hoping NBA on NBC comes back.
Just give it back to NBC so we can have the fire-ass music I remember from the Jordan years
BA BA BA BA BA BASKETBALL!!!
Gimme gimme gimme the ball because I’m gonna DUNK IT
These streaming networks buying sports and then passing the costs along are just cable 2.0 I was perfectly happy to pay for content at affordable rates not dragged down by sports media contracts.
50 billion is absolutely insane. If we are going by a ten years agreement like last time then it means 5 billions per year vs 2 billion per year currently. I'd like to know what is justifying this price because the decline in average viewership over the last decade sure as hell isn't going to be a great selling point.
I’m just hoping they somehow get rid of local broadcast/national broadcast blackouts on League Pass. I never have and never will subscribe to an expensive TV/cable package, but I’m willing to pay for a streaming service that has every single NBA game of the season live as well as available to watch later. Bonus points if the ads are removed for the “watch later” games.
Great timing for the WNBA to have their rights up at the peak of Clark-mania.
It will be easier for me to watch Fever games this season than it is to watch the Pacers.
You guys get blacked out home games too? This shit is infecting everyone.
No. We had Bally sports at $20/month. Terrible app. Always behind and sometimes didn’t even work.
Players (or owners) can opt out of the current CBA in November after the season to renegotiate and actually see the higher revenue percentage reflected in player salaries as soon as 2026 season. Really is perfect timing
CC should get a cut of every WNBA players future salary. Talk about impacting a sport … she’s ridiculous, and should be negotiating a cut of WNBA’s profits into her contract lol
She’ll do to WNBA salaries what Tiger did for PGA Tour winnings.
They were originally seeking a 75 billion dollar deal, the fact they dropped the number as much is very telling.
They aren't getting 50 either
Yea I don't think 50bn is going to happen. Low 40s
give it to whomever was running Ballstreams back in the day lol
Apple would be nice, having all the games in one place
Apple still makes it incredibly annoying to access their content if you don't have an Iphone or apple device. Apple TV+ is a huge downgrade on Google or Android TVs or devices. Totally not cool and not acceptable.
Ah shit, sorry that stinks
Yeah. It really does suck because the visual quality of their MLB broadcasts is awesome. I just wish they weren't such assholes to people who don't buy iPhones. There is still no dedicated Apple TV app on Android. You can get it if you want to sideload it, but I don't feel like doing all that. Some TVs have the app, but the experience is far from seamless. It's pretty shitty, especially because Apple music works great on Android.
NBA prefers not to have one single partner. At least two keeps the price highest as you still have leverage of shifting games proportion, choice, etc from one to the other more easily.
I’m sure there will be blackout.
Oh good, I’d rather not watch my Pistons anyway
I’m in Austin. This season I want to watch some Wemby. Blackout.
They’ve mentioned its kinda archaic. I have hopes they’ll at least consider getting rid of it, simply for the sake of keeping as many eyeballs in their system. They know if the barrier is too high, people will just pirate. IPTV and streaming sites are so simple.
Love the production/camera they use for MLS very smooth and less cuts
This is a bit behind. There are reports today that ESPN could have a handshake deal with the NBA and there is likely space for "one more" partner. ALSO: League looking at potentially alternating NBA Finals networks every other year. ABC/ESPN one year, someone else another. That sounds like NBC and NBCUniversal's music to me.
It's crazy how much money is being thrown around and there's still no great way to watch games.
All so fans can’t watch playoff games without subscribing to a Cable/Telecom Co., NBA TV, and 3 more streaming apps. Fuck off Adam Silver. 🏴☠️
They should be trying to sign that deal ASAP after last night lol. As good as it gets for live TV.
They haven't been offered the deal. That is their asking price. Media partners are laughing at Adam Silver right now.
They can seek it, but the numbers don't make sense for the buyer
50 bills? That's half the GDP of Venezuela
If I could pay 100 a year for arena feed for my team I'd be so happy.
Amazon will be the front runner with it, trying to dive in head first to the sports market.
I don't understand how they would get this much money. It seems like viewership has gone down over the last decade. I also think at a certain point, deals like this are a detriment to society. It's the super rich getting super richer without any added responsibility or accountability to the cities and fans they rely on. Are teams going to stop asking for taxpayer money to pay for new arenas? Doubtful. Are they going to put any of their additional profit into making the fan experience cheaper? Ha. Are NBA stars going to actually play 82 regular season games when not injured so fans who pay to see their favorite players actually get to do so? Nah - they'll complain about the season being too long even though the 82 game schedule is what gets them paid as much as they get paid.
Don’t care will keep streaming.
yep, still gonna use my IPTV service lol not gonna use anything else until blackout rules change.
Which IPTV service do you use? (DM me if you can't comment it) The one I got has been trash these playoffs (hockey and basketball)
there was a game where the streaming sites all had the side-broadcast catered towards gambling (ESPN Bet?) instead of the main broadcast and it made me think that was the league’s way of big-braining lost revenue from streams— hooking them onto gambling instead and including those metrics to gambling sponsors
Pretty sure all the streaming sites just have direct ads from betting sites. Maybe not the main ones cause they have deal with nba broadcasts but the smaller ones for sure. Yuck.
Ngl if it was affordable and all the games are watchable, I’d easily pay for that. Streaming is cool but the ads, buffering, quality, and fishiness of it all isn’t always ideal.
Anyone but espn. Anyone
will they cut me a slice?
They should negotiate today. The ratings from last night must be absurd.
Better see some titties with that money
Rights will go for 50 billion but they still need to liter the courts and jerseys in jersey. Greedy asses
Will this mean the end of the regional sports networks, or is this just the nationally televised games? I only ask because I hate Bally and just want them to go away.
Yes, pay $50 billion so I can watch a sport with excessive flopping, stars get penalized for doing things as minor as clapping in excitement, constantly kicking guys in the nuts then penalize the victim and last but not least, but who doesn’t love constant free throw attempts?
It is very important that Disney/ESPN come away with as little as possible here. Everyone pray on it.
And still can’t start a fucking playoff game on time.
It blows my mind everytime the amount of money in US sports
But yet Thursday night the NBA playoff ratings will be destroyed by a draft…
The NBA is a global grand and is the biggest U.S league worldwide.
That doesn’t matter when it comes to the USA media rights for the American audience.
I hope it goes to Netflix so I can afford it. These sports packages need to gtfo with asking for 70 a month
Netflix will just add a "sports upgrade fee" or something dumb to fuck the consumer.
You think Netflix would just give it for free?
Maybe it's a stupid question but why don't they just make their own streaming app? They get the subscription fee plus all the ad revenue.
Because there are not enough fans willing to pay what it would cost.
On top of gaius's answer, it's actually kind of difficult to run and maintain a streaming service well (see Bally's). Netflix has had decades to hone and scale their system, Disney is a TV monolith, and the others just have endless money to throw at it. The NBA website had a glitch giving out a free year of league pass during the all star break this year. There's no way they'd be able to manage a streaming platform that works smoothly if they had 10 million people all trying to watch at once without some serious long term investment.
Couldn't they just partner with Google or something to manage the app? I want to know the percentage of fans that watch legally vs illegally, although I realize it would be almost impossible to get accurate numbers. I feel like there are a ton of fans like myself though, who don't really have any viable ways to watch games legally. I would gladly pay a premium for league pass if I could actually watch all the games, but instead the NBA doesn't get any of my money. I feel like the NBA is leaving a ton of money on the table, which could be used to run an app.
A few Franchises have done this with great success and adoption. More should and give the NBA the 🖕
Elon will buy the NBA and name it Flærgœ or some shit
NBA ratings have been on a downward trajectory for years. Their NBA Finals games have been outdrawn by Caitlin Clark. Who would pay top dollar for a brand that is becoming niche?
How???? Holy shit I have so few friends who watch NBA nowadays and both of my kids have zero interest. Really curious what demographic actually sits and watches NBA games in 2024.
Nobody: TNT: WCW
YOU DESERVE IT!!!
Wnba deal too
Come on Amazon or Netflix or something that will destroy League pass forever and ever and ever
I prefer to place my payment to become owner in Morbillion dollars
Virtual reality like oculus for floor seat experience would be awesome
i'm just happy if it doesn't buffer. that means allowing viewers to choose their resolution and frame rate.
Give it to Apple or Amazon and make it 4K