NBA extends lucrative US TV deals for 9 years

The National Basketball Association announced nine-year US television contract extensions Monday with Disney's ABC and ESPN and Turner Broadcasting's TNT, deals worth a reported $2.5 billion (1.9 billion euros) a year.
The new deal, whose value was not announced but reported by the New York Times, starts with the 2016-17 season and keeps games on the networks through the 2024-25 campaign and replaces an eight-year contract that expired in 2016.
"They have been terrific partners and have helped continue the growth of our game," NBA commisioner Adam Silver said. "Our game has never been better. We can't wait until opening week."
ESPN will add 15 regular-season telecasts, rising to 85 games, obtain greater digital media and audio rights plus additional regular-season and playoff games and NBA-themed programs for the Pacific Rim, Latin America and Caribbean regions.
"This has been a key deal for us given the ascendent nature of the league," ESPN's John Skipper said. "We're quite content we have done an outstanding deal."
The deal would enhance potential offerings of live games on mobile telephones.
"This is just a natural evolution of our rights," said Washington Wizards owner Ted Leonsis, the NBA media committee chairman. "Other than sports, there really is no more appointment viewing."
The cost of the deal to the networks will be nearly three times what they are now paying.
"We believe it will be meaningfully valuable at the end of the deal," said Turner president David Levy.
Silver said the league spoke to potential rival bidders Fox and Comcast and other internet firms but undertook negotiations only with its current partners.
"We ultimately made a decision that this was the right time to go," Silver said. "These are extraordinarily healthy deals financially. We're confident we maximized what our opportunity was in the marketplace."
The NBA's union deal will send just over half of the new income to players under union contract rules.
"The lion's share of this money will be paid directly to the players," Silver said.
Silver said talks would begin Monday on how the extra money might be distributed, potentially spread over several years rather than one to avoid salary cap issues for some clubs when others would not face them.
"It will have a profound effect," Silver said.
NBA superstar LeBron James is among the players who has planned for the new media deal in his contract talks, signing a short-term deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers in July in order to sign a longer-term deal once the riches from the new contract were available.
Source: AFP