NBA League Pass to add quality-of-life features in crucial year for streaming product

The NBA’s direct-to-consumer subscription streaming service NBA League Pass will carry new features and streamlined content for the 2023-24 season at a marginal price increase.
According to The Mirror, the cost to sign up for the NBA League Pass commercial-free package could increase slightly, while the popular mode enabling users to watch up to four live games simultaneously on a split screen will fully return to the desktop.
And Express Sports US understands that additional noteworthy updates include the download for offline viewing feature coming back — helping hardcore fans to more easily pore over the film while traveling — and informational overlays that sync better with live broadcasts.
NBA League Pass could also gain added importance as struggling regional sports networks (RSNs) go bankrupt and can no longer take advantage of their exclusive broadcast rights. Diamond Sports Group owns rights to 16 NBA teams.
In MLB, the failure of RSNs in San Diego and Arizona has enabled MLB’s streaming service to broadcast their games to fans without local blackouts. As with the NBA, in the past, subscribers have been frustrated by the inability to watch games played by the local teams. RSN downfalls could remove that barrier as leagues take complete control of production.
The NBA continues to monitor the RSN situation, which has loomed since Diamond Sports Group skipped about $140 million in interest payments earlier this year.
“Will there be distribution of NBA games? Yes. Will that happen through the RSNs? I actually hope so. I hope so,” Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer told The Associated Press at the 2023 NBA All-Star Game. “Will their bankruptcy be friendly enough for that to happen? I hope so. Will the creditors probably want our games to continue to get distributed? I think so. So somehow, I have faith without knowledge that we’ll get through this.”
But the financial struggles of Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, which co-runs NBA League Pass, could further complicate matters. The owner of Turner Sports and TNT has cut business costs in recent months. It remains unclear whether Warner Bros. can make a competitive offer when NBA broadcast rights are up for bidding or how much effort they are ready to put into their partnership with the league moving forward. However, CEO Luis Silberwasser told SBJ that Warner Bros executives “love our relationship with the NBA” and “look forward to a very bright future.”
Amid reports Disney is trying to offload it, ESPN could also find it challenging to match streaming giants such as Amazon, Google and Apple for control of future national broadcasts.
Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery pay about $2.7 billion a year combined to broadcast NBA games, according to Bloomberg. The price tag for the next round of deals in 2025 could exceed $5 billion a year. “I would expect NBA rights to more than double and potentially quite a bit more,” former NBA executive negotiator Ed Desser told Bloomberg.