Sporticast 343: The NBA Media Deals Are Close. Is an EPL Salary Cap?
On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including the NBA’s ongoing media negotiations.
The NBA appears close to locking in its next round of billion-dollar media deals with some longtime partners, and possibly a few new ones. Disney’s ESPN is reportedly close to a deal to retain the main TV package at roughly $2.6 billion per year, up from the roughly $1.5 billion that it is currently paying. The rest of the TV rights appear to be in a bidding war of sorts between Warner Bros. Discover (WBD), which owns Turner, and NBC. There’s also reportedly a streaming package that Amazon is the front-runner to land.
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Overall, the league will see a dramatic increase from its current deals with ESPN/Turner, which pay about $2.6 billion per year total. The hosts talk about how much the next package might fetch, and why the stakes are particularly high for WBD. The NBA is one of its most important sports partners, and TNT’s pricey carriage fees could be at risk if the company failed to keep its NBA games. Other WBD partners include the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the NHL, golf tournaments and NASCAR races.
Next the hosts talk about a possible salary cap in the English Premier League. Clubs are moving toward a new model to address spending inequality, proposing an “anchoring” system tied to the revenue of the club that finished in 20th place. Sportico detailed the proposal earlier this week. It will be put to a full vote at the Premier League’s annual general meeting next month.
The also discuss why athletes and team owners are flocking to liquor investments, and a court case involving football coach Ed Orgeron that highlighted legal distinctions between a “binding term sheet” of his employment at LSU and his eventual full employment contract.
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