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The NBA is likely to exit its exclusive negotiating window with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery without a new media rights deal with either company, a person briefed on the talks confirmed to The Athletic on Friday.

That window, which allowed the league to talk only to its two current rightsholders ahead of hitting the open market, began March 9 and will end Monday. NBA commissioner Adam Silver said last week conversations with those media companies are “ongoing and have been very positive.”

The league is expected to stitch together a new rights deal among three or four partners in its next deal, after previously splitting its broadcasts among ESPN/ABC and TNT. That deal, which paid the league an average of $2.7 billion per year over nine years, runs out after the 2024-25 season.

The NBA is likely to add a streaming component for its next deal. Amazon and NBC are considered possible new partners.

CNBC was the first to report the news.

Silver, who has long been bullish on the NBA’s prospects for its next deal, said last week the market “is robust right now.” The league timed its international contracts so it can take its global rights on the market all at once, which would allow it to be flexible in seeking new media rights partners.

It is also parceling together the WNBA’s rights in its negotiations. The WNBA’s current media rights deals are up after its 2025 season. Warner Bros. Discovery has shown interest in acquiring WNBA rights in the U.S., according to one person briefed on the talks.

This round of NBA negotiations has already taken a different approach. Disney and Turner Sports (now owned by Warner Bros. Discovery) came forward quickly ahead of the 2016 deal to take the NBA off the market to preempt the league sending a third rights package to Fox. This time, the NBA faces a significantly different media landscape.

Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery executives have all spoken about a more conservative approach to spending, which may curtail the size of the package they are willing to pay for and could open room for at least one more partner to come in. Deputy commissioner Mark Tatum said last month he expected the NBA to add another media partner while making an appearance on the “The Domonique Foxworth Show”.

“We’re in the middle of an exclusive negotiating window now,” he said. “We’ve been meeting with our incumbents for months, and they’ve expressed an interest in renewing, and we are hopeful that we’re going to continue our partnership with them. I will say this, given the evolving media landscape, I think that we’re likely to emerge from this window with at least one additional partner.”

The timing of the next media rights deal could also influence league expansion. Silver has said in the past that expansion would be the next item on the NBA’s agenda after the league’s collective bargaining agreement (ratified in April 2023) and the upcoming media deal.

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(Photo: Stacy Revere / Getty Images)

NBA likely to exit negotiating window with Disney, Warner without new media rights deal: Source

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