For all the speculation that the NBA could move a portion of its product onto a major streaming service when its current broadcasting rights agreements expire in 2025, linear properties still reach the widest audiences regardless of their overall decline over the years. The NBA has enjoyed fruitful relationships with Turner Sports and ESPN/ABC, and could be in for fascinating competition among rival media companies if either incumbent makes the decision to part ways.
While there have been newer entrants into the sports television market since the NBA extended their agreements in 2014, the three most viable options remain the other lions in the TV jungle — NBC, CBS and FOX. There are attractive reasons for the Association to hop onboard with any of them, or specifically in the cases of NBC and CBS, revive an old theme song for a potential reunion. Yet there are equally, if not greater reasons why the pairings could falter as badly as the 2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers.
We examine the pros and cons that will outline negotiations, should the NBA consider leaving Turner and/or ESPN in two years’ time.
Comcast through NBC Sports
As pointed out eons ago here on the site, when NBC decided to not renew its deal with the NBA in 2002, the internal chatter on its decision was pretty ugly. In the throes of programming struggles, the network was also trying to cut down on its live sports commitments in hopes of righting its ship financially. Just a few years later in 2006, NBC grabbed the Sunday Night Football package in a desperate way to keep up with ABC, FOX and CBS. Fortunately for the folks at 30 Rock, the network charted a new course in sports, one that was sped along for the better when Comcast acquired NBCUniversal in 2010.
More than two decades later, there may be a chance to rekindle an old flame, especially if few folks on either side don’t recall the ugly breakup. That would be the dream for this scribe’s fellow Millennials, right? The NBA making a triumphant return to NBC along with the greatest piece of music ever made. (“Roundball Rock” just doesn’t sound right anywhere else.)
Aside from nostalgia, there’s also necessity. Comcast needs to supplement Peacock with more live sports. Sunday Night Football is a strong pull on its own while the Premier League, WWE, NASCAR and the Olympics have helped add eyeballs to the streamer. And as a call back to their rivalry in the 2000s and 2010s, USA would be happy to get one up on TNT for the first time in a decade.
Yet this would work best if Comcast took over Disney’s current package. The Association would much prefer to have the NBA Finals on a broadcast channel than a cable channel as the former has more reach. Comcast has the major broadcast network (NBC), multiple linear cable channels (USA mainly, with Bravo, CNBC and Syfy acting as spillover channels), and a widely available streaming platform with free and low-cost subscription tiers (Peacock). However, there’s little to zero expectation that Disney will walk away.
In the possibility that Comcast would pick up carry the deal held by WBD, an NFL-like arrangement between ABC and NBC for the NBA is highly unlikely as broadcast networks would rather fold than cooperate with one another. (The same would go for FOX and CBS.)
FOX
We already know this isn’t going to happen, maybe ever. Yet, we can expect there could be an exploratory conversation at the very least.
One pro is simple: as “the fourth network” on over-the-air TV, FOX’s broadcast channel maintains massive reach. FOX basically owes its existence to live sports, leveraging live events like none other outside of ESPN almost from its inception in the late 1980s. On free TV, FOX may not need a ton of additional sports, but having the NBA won’t hurt in any manner.
However, the sports cable channels could use more meaningful content. FOX Corporation shot for the moon when launching FS1 and FS2 in 2013 and had all the opportunities in the world to truly contend with ESPN. Yet somehow despite having live sports from Major League Baseball, NASCAR, major college sports conferences and the PGA, FS1 hasn’t registered much in the sporting consciousness while FS2 is even less relevant. A star player-driven vehicle like the NBA could change the calculus, but only one major fence is mended.
The biggest con against FOX should be obvious but needs to be said. Commentators on FOX News have and continue to target the NBA and its players for myriad issues, real and imagined. It is virtually impossible to envision the company that promotes Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and the like also promoting LeBron James. It would ask a lot of viewers to block out the incendiary rhetoric about James and his peers with ease. We can call this ‘a cultural alignment issue,’ at best.
Another con is that save for the FOX Nation service that compliments FOX News, there’s no premium streaming platform. Though FOX has been building up the FAST service Tubi, there aren’t any plans to launch a competitor to Disney+, Peacock or Paramount+ any time soon. FOX utilized Tubi during the recent men’s World Cup last December, but unless the platform is better marketed and can be accessed beyond smart TVs and mobile devices, the NBA may have little interest in putting games there or any other FAST service at this time.
Paramount via CBS
Like its peers, Paramount Global has the broadcast channel with significant reach in CBS. Similar to Comcast and NBC, it also has multiple linear channels to lean on from such as MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, BET and others. (If it wants to get bold and use its premium channel, an uncensored broadcast on Showtime could be entertaining.) Like FOX, it has a sports cable channel to further prop up in CBS Sports Network. And unlike Peacock, Paramount+ has been gaining in prominence thanks to some well-received scripted programming. Truthfully, there’s a lot of like about what Paramount could offer the NBA.
Yet, there’s little that indicates a possible reunion between the league and CBS, which held rights between 1973 and 1990. For starters, there’s limited over-the-air inventory between its current sports commitments and popular TV shows. While one can argue if its “most-watched network” branding is true or not, there’s a reason why you’ve rarely seen live sports in CBS’s primetime slate outside of Saturday nights. CBS has gone all-in on franchised shows about law enforcement, and other than its turn with Thursday Night Football in 2019, the network hasn’t been in a rush to add live events since. (And you don’t mess with ‘60 Minutes’!)
Certainly, the legacy Viacom cable channels could be used the same way Comcast operates its channels. But wouldn’t CBS Sports Network act as the prime option for NBA games? The contract with UEFA to show Champions League and other soccer tournaments has been a gamechanger for the channel, adding to its roster of pro hoops through the WNBA and BIG3, college basketball, college football, motorsports, MMA and more. The NBA would take CBSSN to another level, yet it would also lead to carriage disputes with cable and satellite operators that would take eons to work out across the country. As we’ve seen over the years, live sports tend to be held hostage in these negotiations.
Paramount already has several massive rights deals with the NFL and the PGA, has essentially traded its SEC deal for the Big Ten, and shares a ginormous package with Turner for the men’s March Madness. Similar to Comcast, taking on Disney’s arrangement would work best for Paramount, but a major part of its current programming — sports or otherwise — would likely take a backseat or be cut entirely in order to accommodate the NBA.
