The NBA wants $75 billion for its next U.S. media rights contracts. But to achieve that ambitious goal, the league needs interested bidders willing to do whatever it takes to outspend each other. 

While that bidding process won’t begin until after this season and any new deals won’t begin until 2025, the NBA just concluded a process for overseas rights including two key media power players.

TNT Sports, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery formerly known as BT Sport, just inked a multiyear deal to takeover the NBA’s U.K. media rights from Sky Sports, a subsidiary of Comcast.

WBD is one of the league’s two current American broadcast partners via TNT’s NBA package, along with Disney, which airs games on ESPN and ABC. WBD wants to retain its NBA rights but will face stiff competition from the likes of Comcast-owned NBC — which may be a significant bidder for the NBA’s next package of rights. 

Other interested media companies could include Amazon, which has deep enough pockets to persuade the NBA to put a major package of games on streaming. 

International Intrigue

While financial figures for the NBA’s U.K. media rights are unavailable, they most certainly pale in comparison to what the league’s next domestic deals will garner. However, the battle involving two American media giants provides a peak at what will be at stake next year when the league can begin negotiating new deals.

An aggressive move by WBD to grab U.K. rights could show the NBA it is serious about retaining its U.S. contract, while Comcast’s willingness to surrender those foreign rights could cancel out a U.S. pact for NBC.

Disgruntled Manchester United fans might not get the Glazer family to sell the Premier League club outright — but there could be some key changes to the team’s day-to-day structure.

As part of Jim Ratcliffe’s proposal to buy a 25% minority stake in Manchester United for north of $1.5 billion, the British billionaire reportedly is looking to have full control of the club’s soccer operations. Ratcliffe wants the power to appoint his own decision-makers for on-field team operations.

Manchester United is currently 10th in the EPL table and bottom of its four-team group in the UEFA Champions League, having lost the first two of six matches in group play.

Off The Field

Additionally, Ratcliffe could look to have representatives from his chemicals company INEOS on Manchester United’s board. For now, Ratcliffe isn’t seeking control of Manchester United’s commercial decisions — including recent record deals with Adidas and American tech company Qualcomm totaling nearly $200 million annually.

While the purchase of one-fourth of Manchester United — valued at more than $6 billion as part of the deal — could be the first step in an eventual full takeover of the club from the Glazers, there appears to be no official timeline discussed for such a move.

The abrupt shutdown of Bally Sports Arizona only accelerates the crumbling of the regional sports network business — and, in an industry first, leaves the country’s 11th-largest media market without an RSN at all.

The Diamond Sports Group-owned RSN, previously known as Fox Sports Arizona, shuttered after 27 years of operation on Friday, tersely posting on social media that it is “no longer providing coverage of your favorite local teams.” 

The move had been expected after DSG rejected its rights to the Arizona Coyotes, following a similar decision in July for the Arizona Diamondbacks. 

The Phoenix Suns and Mercury began the Bally Sports Arizona exodus earlier this year, striking a deal with Gray Television and forming the Suns Live streaming platform. Those Phoenix-area teams are now primarily shown by a mix of over-the-air television and streaming services.

Still, the formal closure of Bally Sports Arizona begins a dramatic new era in which a major U.S. market isn’t served by an RSN — presenting an influential test case for the rest of the country regarding consumption patterns in this new landscape.

Other similar decisions made in recent months — such as the shutdown of the Warner Bros. Discovery Sports-owned AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain in Denver — ran along similar thematic lines but didn’t carry as nearly much singular weight given the presence of other RSNs in the markets.

RSNs have become among the most vulnerable parts of a sports media landscape already facing unprecedented disruption. Drawing revenue from consumers whether or not they watched the networks for years, those RSNs are now battling against growing cord-cutting. 

Digital revenue, meanwhile, hasn’t come close to replacing what’s been lost among linear subscribers.

DSG continues to fight a multipronged struggle in its effort to reorganize, battling simultaneously against its creditors, leagues, distributors, and even its own parent company, Sinclair Inc.