Amazon Wants To Create The Nba S Version Of Thursday Night Football And Is Willing To Spend A Ton To Do It

The NBA’s current media rights agreement ends after the 2024-25 season, though negotiations are already going on now. Disney’s ABC/ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT, the league’s current partners, get first dibs on whether they want to continue broadcasting games. They have until early 2024 to make their decisions. Those decisions will be costlier now. Disney and WBD are paying a combined $24 billion ($2.6 billion per year) to air games. The NBA is seeking more than double that during this round of negotiations, in the neighborhood of $50 billion and $75 billion. NBC is also reportedly interested in getting back into airing basketball games. The league’s “NBA on NBC” aired from 1990 to 2002 and still has the best theme music of any broadcast. Fun fact: That theme, which is officially called “Roundball Rock” was written, produced and recorded by none other than… John Tesh. As he has recounted over the years, the hook for the song came to Tesh in a flash while on a plane. To make sure he did not forget the hook, he called himself from the plane and left a voice message where he recited a rough version from start to finish. Tesh has also claimed over the years that the royalties from “Roundball Rock” are the most lucrative thing he’s ever done in the entertainment world, though we think that’s an embellishment. It looks like the NBA is primed for an all-out bidding war. That means more money coming into the league — and even higher salaries for players. Before long, we could see a superstar earn half a billion dollars over the duration of a single contract.