NEAL PILSON

The NBA has two big media rights deals expiring after the 2024 season. The question is: Will the league strike agreements with streaming services?

When NBC set a long-term deal to carry the Olympics through 2032, it seemed like a savvy deal.

NBC’s Mike Tirico began the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics by saying “just over six months ago in Tokyo, we said we were about to embark on an Olympics unlike any other.

Through the first four nights of competition, NBC is on track for the lowest-rated Winter Games in history. Friday night’s coverage on NBC, USA Network and Peacock averaged 12.8 million viewers, significantly down from the 27.8 million average in Pyeongchang four years ago.

ESPN’s pursuit of Peyton Manning to be a part of “Monday Night Football” has paid off.

Early thinking within league circles suggests the NBA will seek a $75 billion rights package, up from its current $24 billion deal, which pays $2.6 billion per year. One person familiar with sports media deals said the NBA could get $70.2 billion over nine years, using metrics including total viewer hours, which helps networks determine the value of sports league rights. Should the NBA triple its rights and replicate its nine-year deal length, it would generate around $7 billion to $8 billion per season. The NBA also has a $1.5 billion streaming deal with Chinese-based company Tencent Holdings. The NBA has a good reason to seek more money for its rights.

A worker cleans seats in Arrowhead Stadium before an NFL football game between the Kansas City Chiefs and the Los Angeles Chargers, Sunday, Jan. 3, 2021, in Kansas City. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)Regular-season ratings for NFL games declined this season following two straight years of increases. During the last presidential election year in 2016, NFL ratings were down 8%. OTHER PRIME-TIME NUMBERSFox's “Thursday Night Football” averaged 14.1 million, which is a 6% decline. There is speculation that Monday night games might be returning full-time to network television for the first time since 2005.

And all signs point to a return in December, barring any setbacks following meetings planned for Thursday. Some NBA team presidents have also pinpointed December as a return, preparing for safety protocols and marketing plans. Todd Krizelman, co-founder and CEO of advertising firm MediaRadar, said an NBA return in December could have at least a $200 million impact just for the month alone. Projected revenue aside, Pilson and Rishe warned of danger should the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association fail to agree to a December return. In September, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver mentioned a scenario that top players could miss the Olympic games should NBA games still be in progress.

In a year in which few things are normal, there will be some familiar things about NFL broadcasts this season. They have been gathering multi-channel surround audio recordings from every NFL stadium for use in their productions over the past four seasons. Dont doubt the NFL is going to use this as leverage.PRESEASON MAKEUPS: The league will allow stations that have preseason broadcast rights with teams to re-air regular-season games in their markets. Usually, replays are only available on NFL Network or NFL Game Pass. The biggest change in the upcoming rights deals could be Monday nights returning to ABC and ESPN going for the Thursday night games.

Asked for updates surrounding the decision on those events, the NBA did not immediately return a request for comment. But if league owners are seriously considering resuming play without sacrificing games, pushing back the start of the 2020-2021 regular season is almost inevitable. In essence, the idea of starting games around Christmas is a time more relevant for the NBA, Koonin said. "Many times, at the start of the NBA season, we are competing with arguably the best Thursday Night Football game with the NBA on TNT, our marquee broadcast, and we get crushed and we wonder why," Koonin said, according to ESPN. Ponturo agreed with the NBA starting games around Christmas, saying fan activity around the sport usually increases.