With Main Street Sports Group, owner of the FanDuel Sports Networks, preparing to close its doors once the current NBA and NHL regular seasons wind to a close, the NBA is preparing its teams for a new local rights reality next season.
And according to a report by Puck sports correspondent John Ourand, it seems like the league would prefer to get a head-start on its plans to centralize local broadcast rights onto a single platform to sell to a streamer. Per Ourand, most of the 13 NBA teams currently inked to deals with Main Street would likely be part of the centralized package beginning next season. This would include the Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Detroit Pistons, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic, Milwaukee Bucks, San Antonio Spurs, Los Angeles Clippers, and Memphis Grizzlies.
While the ultimate goal would be for the NBA to get all 30 of its teams on board with this centralized package, the league has reportedly been told by streaming executives that they would prefer buying an incomplete set of local rights instead of having to negotiate deals on a team-by-team basis.
As time goes on, and teams that have deals with other regional sports networks see their contracts expire, the league can add more teams to its centralized package. “Within the next two years, all NBA teams could be part of that package,” Ourand reports.
As far as where this package goes, it’s still anyone’s guess. The NBA has reportedly spoken with YouTube, Prime Video, Apple, ESPN, and DAZN about such a package.
The idea, at least from the NBA’s perspective, is that combining local rights for many teams into one package and selling them to a streamer can command more money than if those teams sold their own rights separately. Given the declining economics of regional sports networks, that’s probably a safe bet. The challenge, as with MLB and its similar plan to centralize local rights in the coming years, will be to convince teams that already have lucrative local media rights deals, like the Los Angeles Lakers or New York Knicks, to join the league’s package.
That’s seemingly not a concern for the NBA for next season. They just want to get something off the ground and build from there. But down the line, getting its glamour teams to commit to joining the bundle will be key if the league wants to maximize its potential earnings.