Walt Disney Co.’s ABC and ESPN and Time Warner Inc.’s TNT agreed Wednesday to pay the National Basketball Assn. $7.4 billion over eight years for rights to televise its games and, in one of the first deals of its kind, stream action on the Internet and mobile devices, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The deal, which begins in 2008 and runs through the 2015-16 season, works out to an average of about $930 million a year. That’s a 22% increase over the $765-million average under the current agreement, industry sources said. The expanded digital rights contributed to the increase, along with the continuing rise in the cost of television rights.
The cost of sports broadcast rights has escalated despite a decline in television ratings for the recent NBA finals and overall TV viewership of the league’s regular-season games. That is because sports are still considered appointment viewing on television and reach a demographic swath coveted by advertisers, who are also trying to expand their digital reach.
