The NBA’s new media rights deals worth $76 billion over 11 years will triple the annual revenue the league brings in from its current contract. This will also greatly increase the cost per viewer as NBA ratings have been either down or flat. ESPN's ratings are down 28 percent at 1.77 million viewers per game, while TNT is flat at 1.8 million viewers per game.
The new deals project to average out at $12.12 per viewer. The networks are paying an average of $6.40 per viewer for Disney’s package to $25.45 per customer for Amazon’s package, according to Guggenheim research shared with TheWrap.
On average, the NBA's new media partners are paying more than three times what the media partners for the NFL pay per viewer. The NFL's deal signed in 2021 pays the league $110 billion over 11 years.
That “doesn’t necessarily mean [the NBA] is a bad deal,” Michael Morris, an analyst at Guggenheim Partners, told TheWrap. “Maybe the NFL is just a complete steal.”
“As ratings decline and the relative cost per viewer goes up, the pressure on generating additional revenue is greater in order to get the expected return on these rights investments,” Morris said.