{"id":861797,"date":"2026-08-17T22:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/861797\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T22:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T22:12:10","slug":"sbj-media-the-favorite-to-land-nbas-local-media-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/861797\/","title":{"rendered":"SBJ Media: The favorite to land NBA’s local media hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NBA media rights deal 2.0 is all about local broadcasts and the cha-ching that could come with it. Sources tell SBJ that the NBA and YouTube remain in advanced talks about a 2027-28 aggregated hub<\/a> for 20 to 25 teams \u2014 and eventually 29 of the league\u2019s 30 clubs \u2014 for a potential price tag north of $1 billion.<\/p>\n

Some in the industry expect either a deal or stalemate by possibly this fall \u2014 the latter of which could open the door for DAZN, ESPN<\/a> or Amazon. But as of now, sources contend YouTube (whose head of sports and live partnerships Jen Chun spent nine years at the league office) is the favorite to acquire the moving target that is local NBA TV.<\/p>\n

The gray area of who\u2019s in and who\u2019s out is the holdup for now. Sources said the league \u2014 which declined comment \u2014 envisions a scenario in Year 1 where local telecasts for at least 25 teams are streamed and geofenced exclusively in one place. Meanwhile, perhaps four more franchises (minus the Raptors, who have an ironclad deal with Rogers Communications) could simulcast games in the hub and arrive full-time later in waves. That would make 29.<\/p>\n

The more teams, the merrier. Sources believe if the NBA can offer YouTube 29 clubs, it will want roughly $1.2 billion in return. Then, the league would siphon off rights fees to each team individually, based on market value. For instance, the Heat and Sixers would get a larger piece of the $1.2 billion pie than the Grizzlies or Pelicans but likely less than the Lakers and Knicks (two unknowns who we\u2019ll get to).<\/p>\n

But if the NBA can only provide 25 teams or less in aggregate, sources said YouTube may offer in the $850 million range instead of the $1 billion-plus. Either way, YouTube would hope to earn much of its money back through subscriptions, with likely a nine-year deal (including a five-year option) that would expire just as the league\u2019s 11-year, $77 billion media national deal ends.<\/p>\n

Apparently, there\u2019s too much unknown for YouTube to pull the trigger now. It needs to know which teams are opting in, who\u2019s controlling the inventory, whether there will be local OTA simulcasts, etc.<\/p>\n

Who would be in? Who could be out?<\/p>\n

Then there\u2019s the question of the marquee Lakers and Knicks, the Lakers being the truest unknown. With the team about to be resold for $12.5 billion to the Bob Iger\/Josh Kushner group<\/a>, the future of the Lakers\u2019 local broadcast partner Spectrum SportsNet becomes more pertinent. Iger\/Kushner would stand to earn $199.78 million in local rights fees in 2026-27, $209.76 million in 2027-28 and $218.14 million in 2028-29 \u2014 basically $200 million more than almost every other team in the league.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s money they\u2019d presumably be counting on and money the NBA\u2019s hub presumably cannot match. So will the Lakers opt into the league model? It might depend on whether Charter Communications actually sells Spectrum SportsNet and whether the buyer wants to negotiate the rights fee down. <\/p>\n

The Knicks, whose intra-company rights fee with MSG for this season is $110.84 million, might be a more certain opt-in to the hub, but probably not exclusively. One source said they could conceivably start out with 15 games digitally on YouTube\u2019s platform, then \u201ccut it up with a stair step over the next few years to get them fully exclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Either way, DAZN is waiting in the wings if YouTube waffles. The digital platform is about to house a third of the NBA this coming season in either exclusive or non-exclusive deals (the T-Wolves, Cavaliers, Pacers, Spurs, Grizzlies being exclusive, and the Hornets, Magic, Wizards, Knicks and Nets or more being non-exclusive). By doing so, it can prove to the league it could handle the aggregated hub in 2027-28, although sources said DAZN may have to pay a premium, perhaps $1.4 billion, to outbid a more mainstream company such as YouTube.<\/p>\n

Amazon (which already has League Pass) and ESPN have also shown interest in the hub, but each is already doling out roughly $4.5 billion combined annually for national media rights and may not want to commit another billion more. That\u2019s why YouTube and DAZN appear to be candidates No. 1 and No. 2.<\/p>\n

Nothing is etched in stone. For now, every free agent NBA team is either signing one-year local TV contracts or deals with one-year opt-outs while the league formalizes its 2027-28 plan. For example, sources said the exit clauses with DAZN are only applicable if a team leaves for the NBA\u2019s centralized hub. So that\u2019s why 29 teams \u2014 and DAZN \u2014 wait with bated breath for the league\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

Until then, here\u2019s a prediction of who opts in to the 2027-28 hub:<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NBA media rights deal 2.0 is all about local broadcasts and the cha-ching that could come with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-861797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}