The NBA’s next media deal should silence critics and trolls, at least for a while

In the months leading up to the negotiation window for the NBA’s next media rights deal, we heard a lot of reasons why the league might not find the market as hospitable as it would hope.

• As LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant enter the twilight of their careers, the league doesn’t have any true superstars to replace them with.
• NBA ratings aren’t as good as they used to be (often a dubious claim using cherry-picked data).
• There isn’t as much money to go around as they think.
• Load management and tanking have cheapened the product.
• The NBA has gone “woke” and doesn’t appeal to “traditional” sports audiences.

In recent weeks, we’ve heard plenty of reports and insider rumors about the major players involved in negotiations and the numbers being thrown around. All signs point to the NBA reaching broadcasting agreements valued at around $76 billion over 11 years.

In 2021, it was reported that the NBA wanted to triple their media rights fees under this new deal. Under the previous one, they made $24 billion over the life of all the contracts.

Mission accomplished.

While nothing has been officially signed yet, the NBA has agreed to the “general framework” of deals with ESPN/Disney and Amazon that will bet $2.6 billion and $1.8 billion a year, respectively. A third package will likely end up around $2.5 billion a year, though it remains to be seen if NBC can snatch those rights away from WBD.

In every respect, the NBA will be getting everything it wanted. They get the continued reach of ESPN and Disney coupled with streaming access through Amazon. If NBCU wins the rights, it’s a return to network television and the nostalgic bump of the NBA on NBC (not to mention access to Peacock). If WBD maintains its hold on the rights, it gets a steady hand and the showcase that Inside the NBA provides (though that could live on no matter who wins the rights).

For those who like the bang the drum that NBA ratings are down and interest is waning, the actual numbers tell a very different story. And the media companies handing over billions of dollars for the rights to show these games know it.

All of which is to say the talking points about a lack of a new LeBron or the league’s penchant for not “sticking to sports” don’t seem to have any merit. At the very least, these aren’t issues that concern media companies and streamers. The NBA is the NBA, new stars are always right around the corner (Hello, Anthony Edwards), and “go woke, go broke” doesn’t appear to be true in any real sense.

Of course, none of this will stop those who dislike aspects of the NBA product from claiming it’s in danger. We all know how the media sausage is made at this point. But the next time someone tries to convince you that the league is in trouble or needs to make massive changes to remain relevant, just remember that when it was all said and done, the NBA is laughing all the way to the bank.