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Tag: <span>NBA basketball</span>

Steph Curry says he wants to be an NBA…

3 September 2024
by admin

Steph Curry on NBA team ownership: It's definitely on the table

Four-time NBA Champion Steph Curry is already planning for life after basketball.

The 10-time NBA All-Star spoke to CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” on Tuesday about the rest of his basketball career, his various businesses and goals for after his playing career ends.

The 36-year-old Curry has a media company, Unanimous Media, and a youth golf tour, Underrated, among other ventures. He told CNBC he is also interested in NBA team ownership one day.

“For me, that’s definitely on the table,” said Curry. “I think I could do a pretty good job of helping sustain how great the the NBA is right now and what it takes to run a championship organization.”

The star shooter just inked a one-year, $62.6 million contract extension that keeps him playing for the Golden State Warriors through 2027. That contract will expire when Curry is 39 — and the guard who led the U.S. men’s basketball team to an Olympic gold medal in Paris last month said he still has a lot of NBA basketball ahead of him.

“I know I have a lot more to accomplish on the court before I move into other roles in the league,” he said.

Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors drives to the basket in the second quarter against Dyson Daniels #11 of the New Orleans Pelicans at Chase Center on April 12, 2024 in San Francisco, California.

Kavin Mistry | Getty Images

Curry said seeing former NBA superstar Michael Jordan’s past ownership of the Charlotte Hornets, and the possibility that the league could expand in a couple years, piqued his interest in ownership.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in July that the league will look at expansion after its media deal was completed. The league inked a new 11-year agreement worth about $77 billion in July. The deal starts after the upcoming season.

Curry’s longtime rival and Olympic teammate LeBron James has also expressed interest in team ownership, specifically if Las Vegas is awarded a franchise.

Curry said he’s gotten a first-hand look at how to run a world-class organization, saying Golden State Warriors owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber have set a standard for how to treat players.

“The investment that it takes to create that first-class experience so we feel taken care of allows us to hoop at a high level,” he said.

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Stephen Curry signs $62.6 million, one-year contract extension with…

29 August 2024
by admin

Steph Curry

Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

NBA superstar Stephen Curry has agreed to sign a one-year, $62.6 million extension with the Golden State Warriors, his agent confirmed to CNBC.

The extension keeps Curry in a Warriors uniform through the 2026-2027 season, and will make him the first NBA player to make $60 million in a season, according to Spotrac. As of now, several NBA players who have signed long-term extensions are set to eclipse Curry’s $62.6 million salary the following year.

Curry is a four-time NBA champion and most recently won a gold medal with the Team USA basketball team at the 2024 Olympics. In the championship game against France, Curry led the team with 24 points, all of which were three-pointers.

Curry is no stranger to setting records. He was the first NBA player to hit both the $40 million and $50 million annual base salary marks and has been the highest paid player in the league since the 2017-2018 season, according to Spotrac.

Curry, among other stars, is one of the reasons why the NBA was able to negotiate an 11-year, $77 billion media rights contract in its most recent deal with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon, which takes effect after the upcoming season. The booming value of media rights is driving player salaries up with it.

Younger players like Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum have signed contracts worth more than $300 million over five years, as the league keeps growing more popular and sports continue to be one of the only types of television that people will tune in for live.

Curry, 36, has played his entire NBA career with the Warriors. He has won two league MVP awards and is the all-time leader in three-pointers made.

Programming note: Curry will appear on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street” at 10:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday.

Disclosure: Comcast NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

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YES Network, MSG Networks to launch combined New York…

28 August 2024
by admin

New York Yankees captain Aaron Judge.

Erick W. Rasco | Sports Illustrated | Getty Images

Gotham Advanced Media and Entertainment, the joint venture between MSG Networks and the YES Network, is launching a new app in the fall that will air local games for seven New York area teams.

The package announced Wednesday is believed to be the first time that two regional sports networks have combined their apps into a bundled option.

The Gotham Sports app will launch ahead of the NBA and NHL seasons. Locals will be able to watch the New York Knicks, New York Rangers, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, Buffalo Sabres, Brooklyn Nets and New York Yankees with a subscription.

The Gotham Package that gives access to all of those teams will cost $359.99 annually and $41.99 monthly, almost identical to the monthly price of Fox, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery‘s joint Venu streaming service that was blocked with a temporary injunction earlier this month.

Customers who watch only some of those teams can also purchase access to just MSG+ or the YES App services for $29.99 and $24.99 monthly, respectively. If they already have MSG Networks and YES Network via their pay-TV subscription, they will get Gotham Sports App’s services for no extra fee.

“With the increased fragmentation of outlets carrying fan favorite sports programming, The Gotham Sports App allows fans of our teams one easy access point for New York area sporting events from MSG Networks and the YES Network,” MSG Networks President and CEO Andrea Greenberg said in a press release.

Notably, SportsNet New York — the regional sports network that airs the New York Mets — is not included in this joint venture. It is only available via FuboTV, DirecTV stream and online login for people who pay for cable.

Sterling Entertainment Enterprises, Comcast and Charter co-own SportsNet New York.

The regional sports networks business has undergone dramatic changes in recent years. Boston’s local cable network that aired Red Sox and Bruins games launched the first stand-alone regional streaming service in 2022, and other markets have followed.

Diamond Sports Group, the biggest owner of regional sports networks, filed for bankruptcy in March 2023, leading many professional teams across leagues to change the way they air their games.

A handful of NBA, WNBA and NHL teams have turned to local broadcasters, most recently the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans and Dallas Mavericks.

Some MLB teams have opted to have their games produced by the league.

The Gotham Sports App is not the first regional sports streaming option residents of the greater New York area have had. YES Network and MSG Networks both launched separate streaming services last year, and customers who only want one of the networks’ services and not the combined package can still pay a cheaper rate.

Not all the new regional sports streaming services follow the subscription model. The NHL’s Dallas Stars and Anaheim Ducks both announced their games would be locally aired on Victory+, a free, ad-supported streaming service owned by A Parent Media Co.

Both teams previously had their local games carried by a regional sports network owned by Diamond Sports.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of CNBC.

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Mavericks, Pelicans games are leaving their local sports networks…

26 August 2024
by admin

The NBA logo before the game between the Detroit Pistons and Charlotte Hornets at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on March 11, 2024.

Nic Antaya | Getty Images

Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans fans are waiting for a new way to watch local games in the upcoming National Basketball Association season.

Both teams are exiting their regional sports networks owned by Diamond Sports, according to a Friday bankruptcy court filing.

The NBA season is set to begin Oct. 22. While neither franchise has publicly announced where its local games will be aired, both teams have a history of televising their games with local broadcasters.

The Pelicans have reached an agreement in principle with Gray Television to air games this season, a person close to the team told CNBC, confirming earlier media reports. Representatives for Gray and the Pelicans declined to comment on the matter.

Last season, the Pelicans aired 10 of their matchups on Gray’s local stations, and the Mavericks, who appeared in last season’s NBA Finals, entered a 13-game agreement with Tegna‘s Dallas-Fort Worth stations.

Representatives for the Mavericks and Tegna did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests asking who would broadcast their local games.

The Mavericks and Pelicans are the latest teams to move the bulk of their regular-season games from their Diamond-owned regional sports networks, which are under the Bally Sports brand.

Diamond Sports has spent the past 18 months trying to navigate its way out of bankruptcy, and along the way, several NBA, WNBA and National Hockey League teams have ditched regional sports networks in favor of local broadcasters. Some Major League Baseball teams that have left these networks will now have their games produced by the league.

Diamond Sports will receive $1.3 million and more than $297,000 in repayments from the Mavericks and Pelicans, respectively, as part of the terminations, according to the court filing.

The split with the Mavericks and Pelicans comes as Diamond enters into broadcast and streaming rights agreements with the NBA and NHL for the upcoming season as part of its bankruptcy process. The deals are subject to court approval.

“We are appreciative of the ongoing collaboration and long-term partnerships with the NBA and NHL,” Diamond Sports CEO David Preschlack said in a statement, adding the deals with the leagues “are another major milestone” toward exiting bankruptcy protection.

Diamond Sports has been one of many companies crushed by the decline of cable. Though it launched a sports-only streaming service for some of its teams in 2022, the company’s $8 billion debt load was too staggering to stop it from filing for bankruptcy protection.

As the NBA and NHL seasons near, Diamond has also faced more pressure in recent months to form a viable business plan and prove it can make the necessary rights payments.

Diamond marked another milestone this summer when it reached a deal to return its networks to Comcast’s cable TV customers. The Bally Sports networks went dark on Comcast — Diamond’s third largest distributor — in early May.

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.

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Warner Bros. Discovery tells NBA it intends to match…

22 July 2024
by admin

Warner Bros. Discovery said Monday it has informed the National Basketball Association that it intends to use its matching rights for a package of games earmarked for another company. Warner Bros. Discovery is targeting the deal carved out for Amazon Prime Video, according to a person familiar with the matter.

“In an effort to continue our long-standing partnership, during both exclusive and non-exclusive negotiation periods, we acted in good faith to present strong bids that were fair to both parties. Regrettably, the league notified us of its intention to accept other offers for the games in our current rights package, leaving us to proceed under the matching rights provision, which is an integral part of our current agreement and the rights we have paid for under it,” Warner Bros. Discovery said in a statement.  

“We have reviewed the offers and matched one of them. This will allow fans to keep enjoying our unparalleled coverage, including the best live game productions in the industry and our iconic studio shows and talent, while building on our proven 40-year commitment for many more years,” the company said. “Our matching paperwork was submitted to the league today. We look forward to the NBA executing our new contract.”

The NBA has “received Warner Bros. Discovery’s proposal” and is “in the process of reviewing it,” according to a league spokesperson.

Warner Bros. Discovery acquired matching rights as part of its previous deal with the league, which expires at the end of next season. Those rights allow the company to match payment for any of the games that aired on TNT in the current deal.

The question for both the NBA and Warner Bros. Discovery is if the rights extend to an all-streaming package, as has been carved out for Amazon. Warner Bros. Discovery also owns a streaming service, Max, which it could use to air games.

Still, Amazon Prime Video has more than twice as many global customers — more than 200 million to Max’s roughly 100 million — which may make the service a more appealing platform for the league. The streaming rights are global, even though Warner Bros. Discovery is only bidding on U.S. rights, according to people familiar with the language in the contract.

Amazon is also on firmer footing as a stand-alone company, with a market capitalization of nearly $2 trillion. Warner Bros. Discovery’s market valuation has fallen to about $20 billion, and CEO David Zaslav has repeatedly discussed his interest in more mergers or partnerships, putting the future of the company into question. That’s an added potential headache for the league, which wants stability in its broadcast partners.

The league has also inked deals with Disney and Comcast’s NBCUniversal for two other packages of games. Both Disney and Comcast have market valuations of more than $150 billion.

If the NBA rejects Warner Bros. Discovery’s right to match the Amazon package, what happens next remains unclear. It is possible Warner Bros. Discovery could sue the NBA. It is also possible the league could work out a settlement with the company. It is unclear if the NBA would ask Amazon to pay more money for its package.

One possibility that is not likely is crafting a fourth package of games, according to people familiar with the matter. In the past two months, the NBA has entertained putting together a fourth package, but those talks fizzled because deals were already in place with Disney, Comcast and Amazon, and those partners did not want to give away inventory, said the people. All three partners plan to pay more money for fewer games than the league is currently getting from either Disney or Warner Bros. Discovery in its current deal.

Disney will pay about $2.6 billion per year for its package, and NBCUniversal around $2.5 billion per year, CNBC has previously reported. Amazon’s deal is worth $1.8 billion per year. The less-expensive price tag is why Warner Bros. Discovery has targeted that package of games for its matching rights, according to people familiar with the matter.

The NBA also has not wanted to carve out too many packages because it is sensitive to consumer confusion and limiting the number of services for which fans need to subscribe, the people said. While Amazon plans to include NBA games with its Prime subscribers at no extra charge, Max’s sports strategy includes an additional $9.99-per-month fee for access to live games on top of a basic Max membership. Warner Bros.

Discovery has not decided if it will include the NBA games on its basic tier or sports tier, according to people familiar with the matter.

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.

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NBA sends media terms to Warner Bros. Discovery, officially…

18 July 2024
by admin

Jaylen Brown, #7 of the Boston Celtics, shoots a three-point basket against the Dallas Mavericks during Game 5 of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden in Boston on June 17, 2024.

Nathaniel S. Butler | National Basketball Association | Getty Images

With National Basketball Association media rights approaching final form, Warner Bros. Discovery is about to make its play.

The league has sent official terms of its proposed new media rights contacts to Warner Bros. Discovery, starting a five-day period where the media company can choose to match a package of broadcasting rights.

A TNT spokesperson confirmed the receipt of the documents and acknowledged the company is currently reviewing the terms. Warner Bros. Discovery received the contract framework on Wednesday night, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be named because the details are private.

The media rights deal, as currently constructed, includes deals with Disney, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Amazon for three different packages of games, totaling $76 billion over 11 years, beginning with the 2025-26 season. It also includes WNBA games, which is worth $2.2 billion of the total sum.

Warner Bros. Discovery intends to match a package of games that has been slotted for Amazon, as CNBC first reported in May, which includes both playoff games and the the in-season tournament, according to the people familiar. Amazon signed a deal with the NBA to pay $1.8 billion per year for its package, they said.

Next steps unclear

When Warner Bros. Discovery formally announces its intention to match, it’s unclear what will happen next. The NBA may or may not have the right to reject Warner Bros. Discovery’s matching rights, and the league has been working with its lawyers for months in preparation of a potential lawsuit, according to people familiar with the matter.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s Turner Sports has been a broadcast partner of the NBA for almost 40 years. The company plans to argue that its matching rights — a holdover from its current media rights deal — applies to Amazon’s package of games, even though that package has been earmarked for a streaming-only service. Along with its cable network TNT, Warner Bros. Discovery owns Max, a competitor to Amazon’s Prime Video.

Still, Max has fewer subscribers than Prime Video, at about 100 million versus Prime’s more than 200 million monthly global subscribers. The streaming rights that are part of the Amazon package are global in nature, one of the people said.

TNT is also the home to “Inside the NBA,” the popular NBA studio show featuring Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal. Barkley has already said he plans to retire from the show after next season no matter the outcome of the media rights deal.

Charles Barkley on NBA media rights, leaving sports analytics and the Olympics

“I don’t have a sense of that,” said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver earlier this week at a press conference when asked what may or may not happen with regard to Warner Bros. Discovery or the NBA’s own network, NBA TV, which is operated by TNT Sports. “We’ll see.”

Losing the NBA would be a blow for Warner Bros. Discovery, which could lose about $600 million in profit from advertising and a potential decrease in cable affiliate fees if it loses the NBA, Wolfe Research media and entertainment analyst Peter Supino told MarketWatch earlier this week.

Warner Bros. Discovery shares have fallen 23% this year.

“I apologize that this has been a prolonged process, because I know they’re committed to their jobs,” Silver said last month of Warner Bros. Discovery employees who work on NBA programming. “I know people who work in this industry, it’s a large part of their identity and their family’s identity, and no one likes this uncertainty. I think it’s on the league office to bring these negotiations to a head and conclude them as quickly as we can.”

Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.