In 2025, NBC will begin its 11-year, $27 billion deal for NBA media rights. The cost of the deal surprised incumbent TNT, but NBC is confident it will be profitable for their company.
“We have a plan. We know exactly what we paid … and we have a rationale for why that makes sense,” NBCUniversal Media Group chairman Mark Lazarus said at the Front Office Sports Tuned In summit Tuesday.
“We are very confident that we made a good choice for our networks, for our businesses, and for our shareholders,” Lazarus said.
Despite the continued increase in media rights fees, NBC doesn’t anticipate the bubble bursting in the near future.
“We’ve been saying for 25 years or 30 years—as long as I’ve been kind of doing these kinds of roles—that the market’s about to burst, but it still hasn’t burst,” he said. “I wish it would, but it hasn’t.”
