The NBA’s split with Warner Bros. Discovery could spell major changes — or even the end — for NBA TV.
While the league owns the channel, WBD has operated it since 2008. With that relationship winding down, the future of the network is unclear, per a report from Puck News.
NBA TV’s reach has been shrinking for a while. Distribution is down 42% over the past decade, falling from 60 million homes to just 35 million.
Now, with ESPN, NBC, and Prime Video set to take over the league’s next round of media rights, there may simply not be enough inventory left to justify keeping NBA TV alive.
Sources told Puck’s John Ourand that the league has “not decided how (or if) the channel will continue.”
One option might be handing off operations to one of the league’s new partners — though for now, that’s just speculation. All three are reportedly paying too much for exclusivity to let games leak elsewhere.
League Pass, the NBA’s out-of-market subscription service, is expected to continue. But the fate of the league’s cable channel — once a key part of its media strategy — is very much up in the air.
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