[FloridaMan88]

I would start watching the NBA again just for the return of Roundball Rock...

Link: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/02/13/nbc-...e-nba-bid.html

NBC Sports hopes to bring back the NBA, sources say

Cue up John Tesh’s “Roundball Rock” – “The NBA on NBC” may be returning, if NBC Sports gets its way. Comcast’s NBCUniversal is preparing to make a bid to win back National Basketball Association broadcast rights more than 20 years after the company lost them to Disney and Turner Sports, according to people familiar with the matter.

NBCUniversal executives have informed the NBA of their potential interest, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. NBC Sports wants a package that would include playoff games to air on NBC’s broadcast network, two of the people said. Some regular season games could be exclusive to NBCUniversal’s streaming service, Peacock. The NBA could also decide to force media companies to simulcast all games on streaming to increase reach, the people said.

It’s possible NBCUniversal will be directly competing with Warner Bros. Discovery to be the league’s second traditional TV partner, along with ESPN. NBCUniversal can offer a broadcast network (NBC) to air NBA games if pay TV providers begin dropping cable networks, such as TNT and TBS, that run mostly reruns of scripted programming when sports aren’t on. Comcast also owns Sky, which could give the NBA another international broadcast outlet.

“What you have today is programmers selling us content at increasingly higher prices and asking us to distribute that to largely all of our customers, and at the same time, selling that exact same content either into streaming platforms or creating a direct-to-consumer product themselves at a much lower cost,” said Chris Winfrey, CEO of Charter, the second largest U.S. cable provider, in comments published by CNBC last week. “Our willingness to continue to fund that for programmers when that content is available for free elsewhere is declining. That means within the linear video construct, you’ll see an increasing number of distributors deciding it no longer makes sense to carry certain content.”

Warner Bros. Discovery can counter with a larger global streaming service — the combined HBO Max/Discovery+ (likely to be called Max) — which launches later this year. Warner Bros. Discovery ended September with about 95 million streaming subscribers, far outpacing Peacock’s 20 million, which are U.S.-only. The NBA has been partners with Turner Sports for nearly 40 years.

Many NBA fans fondly remember “The NBA on NBC” for its dramatic “Roundball Rock” theme song and era-defining broadcasts of the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls winning six titles during the 1990s. NBC aired its last NBA games during the 2002 finals, when the Los Angeles Lakers swept the New Jersey Nets. Games have been split between Disney’s ESPN and ABC and Turner Sports’ TNT and TBS for the last two decades. ABC airs the NBA Finals.