USA: NBA in negotiations with Disney and Time Warner for TV rights; seeks to double price

The NBA (National Basketball Association, North America) launched negotiations on 22/07/2014 with Disney and Time Warner to extend the broadcasters' nation-wide domestic TV rights for the league's games after the 2015-16 season, The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg reported on 15/07/2014.

The cost of the national TV rights for the NBA for 2008-2016 is averaging $930m (approximately €688m) per season, or a total of $7.44bn (€5.5bn) for the entire period. The media company Disney (broadcasting on its pay-TV channel ESPN and national commercial channel ABC) paid $485m (€358.5m) per season, while its counterpart Time Warner (through its pay-TV channel TNT) paid $445m (€329m) per year.

The NBA is aiming to double the price of its domestic TV rights from 2016-17. The North American league is bound by contract to negotiate first with its current broadcasters, and can only start negotiations with a competing broadcaster if no agreement could be found with Disney and Time Warner. The negotiations, which start on 22/07/2014, will go through all of 2015, according to American news outlets.

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