NBA Commissioner Adam Silver reiterated today at SBJ’s CAA World Congress of Sports that imminent expansion is “not a foregone conclusion” and implied that his priority instead is solving a leaguewide local TV issue that has in-market games “almost you could say trapped” on cable.
In his 30-minute conversation with ESPN analyst and former Warriors GM Bob Myers, Silver called disruption in the local media space “very top of mind” while also mentioning that he’d like his legacy as commissioner to be tied to his ability to ”plant flags all over the world” for NBA business and a potential NBA Europe.
But his strongest comments were reserved for the RSN industry, where he said rights fees have taken a “25% hit collectively; for some teams it’s around a 50% reduction.” While also saying “I think we’ll work through that,” he was blunt in his assessment that “two-thirds of the NBA teams are operating with RSNs that just came out of bankruptcy [Main Street Sports Group] or some that were completely defunct [AT&T SportsNet]” — and then pointed to streaming as the potential solution.
“I … hate to make it so negative, but [local game broadcasts] are caught in legacy media, which is rapidly declining,” Silver said. “And our young fans, in particular, we used to talk about cord-cutters; they’re really cord-nevers. It’s not part of their lives to buy cable … And so the local situation by definition will then get even worse.”
The fix, which could come either this off-season or next, is a national streaming RSN platform that the league is ideating and simultaneously shopping to streaming services such as Amazon, YouTube, Apple and potentially ESPN+ and Roku. Silver doubled down on that today, saying “I actually think we’re undervaluing live sports right now and the specialness around it,” and predicted eventual customized game streams can be akin to “the Manning Cast, but on steroids.”
Silver also touched on:
Expansion: Silver had insinuated at his Board of Governors press conference in March that league expansion might have to wait until the national streaming RSN is formalized (not wanting to hand a new owner a poor local TV model), and he seemed to repeat that long-view stance today when explaining the complexities of adding more NBA franchises. Factors such as owners not wanting to split the new $77B media rights money two more ways.
While mentioning Seattle and Las Vegas outright as options, Silver also pointed out that Vancouver — which lost the Grizzlies to Memphis in 2000 — was interested in re-obtaining a franchise.
NBA Europe: He was far less vague about the proposed NBA Europe, rattling off that the league would likely include 12 permanent franchises in European cities such as Paris, London, Berlin, Barcelona and Madrid and also four other clubs that would have to “play in on a yearly basis” such as established EuroLeague teams.
“Now, again, just to be clear, this would be a standalone league,” Silver said. “It wouldn’t be a division of the NBA. Maybe one day some of these teams could be a division of the NBA. I mean I am always reading about new supersonic air jets, jets that are coming online. I mean, I think that could dramatically change things of faster flight.”
His legacy: Asked by Myers how he wants to leave this job, as it pertains to his legacy, Silver didn’t want to emphasize “legacy” as much as taking “full advantage” of global business opportunities.
“I’m concerned sometimes that people will look back on this era and say, ‘why didn’t you do more?’” he said. “You’re one of the biggest brands in the world. You have this opportunity. … I want to make sure that for this period in which I’m overseeing the league, he did really plant flags all over the world and pursued these enormous opportunities.”
