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SportsTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC]
00:03 Very big news, Simon, to start off with.
00:06 In the National Basketball Association, I think some people will be excited,
00:11 especially those like you and me of the older variety that used to watch
00:15 the NBA on NBC.
00:16 I think there will be some younger folks who are not excited because
00:20 inside the NBA, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith sort of hangs in the balance.
00:25 It's a great place to start.
00:26 How are you?
00:27 >> Very, very fine, Craig, and yes, you can't do any better than what we're
00:30 about to deep dive into, which is, if you didn't hear the first half of the show,
00:34 it looks like the NBA is very, very close to finalizing a $76 billion,
00:38 11-year media rights contract where Warner Bros. Discovery, TNT is out
00:43 as a carrier of NBA games, including the conference final starting next year.
00:48 It's gonna be, it looks like ESPN ABC stays on, NBC comes back as a partner,
00:53 and Amazon comes in through Prime Video as a partner.
00:57 The breakdown is, at least as far as we know right now,
00:59 $2.6 billion at ESPN ABC will pay a year through Walt Disney.
01:04 NBC and Peacock, 2.5 billion, Amazon, 1.8 billion.
01:09 Now without knowing the particulars yet, and
01:10 there has been no formal announcement as we speak from the NBA,
01:13 here's what looks like is gonna happen.
01:15 ESPN ABC will probably retain all it's doing right now.
01:19 They will have the NBA finals on ABC, they'll have a conference final,
01:23 playoff games, regular season games, etc.
01:25 When it comes to NBC and Peacock,
01:27 it looks like they will get the conference final that TNT currently has.
01:33 That's why it looks like they'll pay $2.5 billion a year,
01:36 plus regular season games, plus playoff games.
01:39 What looks like Amazon is going to pay for, with $1.8 billion,
01:43 is gonna be the in-season tournament, the NBA All-Star Saturday and
01:48 the NBA All-Star game that TNT currently has, and maybe playoff games.
01:53 And maybe some special games as well.
01:55 It's gonna be interesting to see.
01:57 Now, there's a lot of questions that need to be answered when this deal is done.
02:02 First of all, when it comes to ESPN and ABC, given the fact that ESPN
02:07 is very much set on launching a new mega content version of their service,
02:11 will they get exclusive games on this mega content service?
02:15 And given ESPN bet, which we talked about in the previous segment with Matthew,
02:19 given the sports betting landscape a year from now,
02:21 will the NBA allow ESPN bet to allow viewers, depending on where they are and
02:27 when they're allowed to place bets, to place bets live on the television set with
02:31 these games?
02:32 Same thing with Peacock, with NBCUniversal.
02:35 How many games will Peacock have at an exclusive basis?
02:38 And when it comes to Amazon,
02:40 will they be able to do sports betting as well as other interactive programming?
02:43 We saw what they did with the Black Friday game last year with the NFL.
02:47 You know they're gonna get Thursday Night Football.
02:49 And you know they're gonna get, next year by the way,
02:51 they will get one of the two Christmas Day games that Netflix will have this year.
02:55 So it's gonna be very interesting to see all these different situations.
02:59 And one more thing, in terms of this contract, will Roku be a surprise player?
03:05 Remember that Roku now is in deal with NBCU to do an Olympic zone next month for
03:10 the Olympics coverage.
03:11 I believe they're also gonna have an NBA Fast Channel next year,
03:14 before the end of this year.
03:15 So could NBCUniversal, as part of this deal,
03:18 allow Roku to come in and create an NBA zone on their home screen?
03:22 So Roku could be a surprise winning player when this deal is announced.
03:26 Keep in mind also, the exact payment may shift because of what is going on right
03:31 now with the conference finals.
03:32 It's not very good news for the NBA.
03:34 Both conference finals, down double digits in viewership from a year ago.
03:38 Playoffs overall, going into the finals tomorrow, which starts tomorrow night on
03:41 ABC, 4.1 million viewers average.
03:44 That's down 11% from a year ago.
03:46 [MUSIC]