NBA Hits Jackpot, Reaches Huge $24B TV Deal Agreement With ESPN And TNT
The National Basketball Association (NBA) has hit the jackpot after the league reached a $24 billion agreement on the coverage and media rights of the NBA games with TV giant ESPN and TNT.
The new deal begins from the 2016-2017 NBA season and ends on the 2024-2025 NBA season making it one of the more lucrative deals in any sports-TV agreement in the entire sporting world.
Under the existing contract, also with ESPN and TNT is paying the league about $930 million annually in the deal that will last until the 2015-2016 NBA season. The new deal means a jump to roughly $2.6 billion per year— nearly a triple of the current agreement.
NBA capologists— defined as the NBA experts for anything involving the NBA salary cap, NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), team finances, player salaries and its details— have started to speculate on the effects of the new deal. Effects that can virtually change the landscape of the NBA, both on and off the court.
Zach Lowe, the NBA expert for the popular sports-entertainment website, grantland.com, has the details on the potential effects of the said deal.
“The importance of the league’s cap situation cannot be overstated. It has been the single biggest topic of conversation among team executives for the last year. The salary cap rises and falls hand in hand with league revenues, and this TV contract will be the largest injection of revenues in NBA history. It is a goddamned jolt,” Lowe said in his article regarding the new TV deal.
Earlier in the 2014 offseason and previous summers when players renegotiate their respective contracts, some players were anticipating the jump in the said TV deal which will affect the league’s salary cap.
The salary cap for the 2014-2015 season is valued at around $63 million. With the new deal, it could skyrocket to $80 to $90 million after the league recomputes the potential yearly revenues.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver was scheduled to formally announce the new TV deal— with all the details— on Monday in the United States.
The NBA has won its latest battle and all NBA players are celebrating because it means a higher pay check when they sign their next NBA contract.
