Warner Bros. Discovery is in trouble after Comcast offers NBA a massive deal

Could the NBA be returning to NBC?

May 1, 2024 - 02:30

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Warner Bros. Discovery is in trouble after Comcast offers NBA a massive deal

Warner Bros. Discovery, which owns Turner Sports, is in jeopardy of losing one of its prized possessions: the NBA.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Comcast (CMCSA) , which owns NBC, has made an offer to acquire a share of the broadcasting rights for the NBA in a deal worth $2.5 billion annually.

The deal would be more than two times the amount that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) is currently paying for the NBA rights, which was at around $1.2 billion.

NBC's deal would reportedly include NBA regular season and playoff games. If the package is similar to WBD's current package, that would include the Eastern Conference Finals.

Comcast's deal would bring the NBA back on NBC airwaves, the home of the league during a prosperous era in the 1990s that saw the sport take a global boom in large part due to the success of Michael Jordan.

In today's era, NBC would allow the NBA to have a second avenue at a national broadcasting audience, which it has with ABC via its deal with Disney (DIS) , but is something that WBD cannot offer as it airs games on TNT and TruTV.

Comcast also provides a proven streaming platform to air games in Peacock, which aired the first exclusive NFL game on its platform. Peacock is also set to broadcast the 2024 Summer Olympics as the company continues to bet big on live sports on its streaming platform.

The NBA's current media rights deal is split between Disney and WBD, paying the league about $2.7 billion annually. ESPN, which reportedly has a framework deal set with the NBA, is reportedly upping its side of the deal from $1.5 billion to $2.6 billion annually. The NBA is also adding a third partner, which is poised to be Amazon (AMZN) after a report late last week indicated that a framework deal has also been made between the two sides.

The total number between Disney and Comcast's offer would be $5.1 billion, just short of doubling the amount of the previous deal that the NBA is reportedly hoping to do. But with Amazon's numbers still unclear, it would seem as though the NBA will breach two times of its previous deal when the contracts are signed.

Losing the NBA could be a huge blow for the struggling WBD, especially as the company is set to launch a joint venture with ESPN and Fox that would create a sports streaming platform combining the properties of the three companies.

Should the NBA move away from WBD, it's unclear what would happen to the ancillary parts of the company's production. WBD has also invested heavily in the production surrounding the NBA, including the massively popular "Inside The NBA" team starring Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal.

WBD has seen its stock dip nearly 10% today due to the potential NBA loss. The company is also down over 35% year-to-date as it faces financial headwinds in an evolving media space.

It's been reported by Puck in the past that the WBD has the right to match the deal from Comcast. WBD execs have made it clear that they are hoping to keep the rights with the NBA.

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