NBA’s TV Billions Are Still Flowing Even With Games Going Dark
- ESPN, Turner are making rights payments during virus blackout
- NBA gets $2.6 billion annually from networks to air live games
This article is for subscribers only.
National Basketball Association teams are still receiving payments from their broadcast partners, even though games are on hold because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to people familiar with the matter.
The NBA last week said it was suspending its regular season after a player tested positive for the virus, forcing its network partners -- AT&T Inc.’s Turner and Walt Disney Co.’s ABC and ESPN -- to fill programming holes when the league was meant to be approaching its playoffs.