At a time when basketball ratings are in steady decline, the NBA is on the verge of signing a $70-plus billion sports rights deal that would grow its annual media rights revenue by almost three times. How does that make any sense?
In an age of cults, sports are the last gasp of the monoculture—the last remnant of the 20th-century mainstream still standing. Even so, the new NBA media rights deal is astonishing. At a time when basketball ratings are in steady decline, the NBA is on the verge of signing a $70-plus billion sports rights deal that would grow its annual media rights revenue by almost three times. How does that make any sense? (Try asking your boss for a tripled raise when your performance declines 2 percent a year, and tell us how that goes.) And what does this madness tell us about the state of sports and TV economics in the age of cults and cord-cutting? John Ourand, sports correspondent with Puck News, explains.
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Host: Derek Thompson
Guest: John Ourand
Producer: Devon Baroldi
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