This from Marc Spears of the Denver Post:
Originally, Commissioner Stern wanted extensions of the current television deals completed by the end of 2006. More recently, the target date for the extensions was by the NBA Finals.
More than likely, the NBA will renew its current television deal with TNT, ESPN and ABC. It is no surprise that the poor Nielsen ratings over the past six years on broadcast television will not have much of an impact; this is a cable-heavy deal, one in which games on ABC are produced by ESPN. With the small amount of games ABC televises, and with the only prime-time games airing on Saturday nights or after May sweeps, poor NBA ratings do not have much of an impact on the network. More importantly, the current negotiations center more on digital rights.
Both ESPN and Turner are jockeying to nab the rights to NBA digital content; both networks have already completed similar deals with Major League Baseball and NASCAR, respectively.
What can be expected of a new rights deal? Last June, Stern was said to “[believe] a new rights deal should span between six and 10 years, and added that while he feels the NBA telecast rights are more valuable than they were when the current contract was negotiated, he realizes that fee increases will be more modest than they have been in the past.” With that in mind, one could easily expect ABC, ESPN and TNT to be broadcasting the NBA well into the next decade. A second six-year deal would keep the three networks involved with the NBA through the 2013-14 season.
See also: “NBA likely to stay with ABC.” and “NBA to sell itself.”
