While sports rights prove the game changer on the small screen, the ball is in Disney’s court when it comes to the NBA.
“We are interested in a renewal with the NBA,” CEO Bob Chapek said today after the company released its surprisingly strong quarterly earnings reports. However, despite all his praise on the Golden State Warriors’ winning finals ratings of the basketball league this year, the almost always wary executive added the caveat that “we’ll only do this if it helps value shareholder”.
Currently, under the nearly decade-long deal between ESPN owner House of Mouse and now-titled Warner Bros. Discovery, with Adam Silver running the NBA, Disney pays around $2.5 billion a year. This hoops deal is set to expire after the 2024-25 NBA season, which may or may not be won again by Steph Curry the Warriors. Looking at the huge sums the NFL has taken from networks, streamers and more in recent negotiations, the NBA is looking to significantly increase its current $24 billion deal.
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Stephen Curry leads the hoop in Game 6 of the 2022 NBA Finals. gi
Whispers are that the league is considering a payout of up to $75 billion from potential bidders. While saying today that Disney is “still bullish on the sport”, Chapek wouldn’t be dragged deeper into talks over a new deal. “An ongoing relationship with the NBA would be something really appealing to us,” was about all the CEO would add.
“We are continually in love with the power of sport,” Chapek also said during Wednesday’s expectation-defying results call. He also honestly admitted that sports success helps pay some of the bills for Disney-owned linear networks. To that end, Chapek offered a more direct-to-consumer future for ESPN on today’s call, but, as usual, the CEO hedged his bets in his forward-looking statement. Chapek noted that the company’s ESPN plans will see it “pre-actively prepare without prematurely disrupting the cash flow we receive from linear networks.”
In corporate jargon, that means Disney won’t pass the ball until it knows it’s going to score.
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