In the latest interactive monthly data report, SportBusiness Media analyses the basketball media-rights landscape.
Further detail on the deals covered in this interactive data report is available with our Rights Tracker tool – click here for more information.
Third-most valuable market
According to the 2019 SportBusiness Consulting Global Report, basketball has the third-most valuable media rights worldwide. Basketball media rights were worth about $4.28bn (€3.89bn) in 2019, accounting for 8.4 per cent of the total global sports-rights market.
The majority of the basketball media revenue – 94 per cent – comes from its most valuable property, the National Basketball Association. More information on the NBA and its media rights can be found in our 2019 NBA data report.
In this report, the analysis will be focused on the other properties that account for the remaining basketball media-rights revenue.
Top European basketball competition
The Euroleague has the second-most valuable media rights of all basketball competitions in the world.
The competition was introduced in 2000 as a replacement for the International Basketball Federation (Fiba) EuroLeague and it is managed by Euroleague Basketball, a company constituted of all the teams taking part in the tournament. The competition’s most valuable media-rights deal is a result of a joint venture with IMG started in 2016. The deal is for ten seasons until 2026, with the option of being extended for a further ten seasons until 2035-36.
Since then, the IMG-Euroleague joint venture has secured media-rights deals across the world, including in core markets, like Spain, Greece and Israel.
The most valuable market for the league is Spain, as a result of four Spanish teams taking part in the competition. OTT platform DAZN holds rights from 2019-20 to 2022-23. The deal represented a 50-per-cent increase on the previous one-season deal with telco Telefónica, covering the 2018-19 season.
The second-most valuable market for Euroleague is Greece, driven by the presence of Olympiacos BC and Panathinaikos BC. Pay-television broadcaster Nova holds rights from 2017-18 until the end of the current season. The deal represented an increase of 98 per cent on the value of the Euroleague’s previous deal with the Asset Ogilvy agency for the 2016-17 season. Given the importance of the property in the market, Nova has already agreed to pay a premium to renew until 2023.
Israel is another key market for the league, where pay-television broadcaster The Sports Channel holds rights in a six-season deal, from 2016-17 to 2021-22. The deal represented a 98-per-cent increase in value on the previous deal with Channel 10, which covered the 2015-16 season.
Click on each market icon to filter historical media-rights value information.
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International basketball competitions
National-team basketball competitions, which are managed by Fiba, also generate media-rights revenue.
In 2016, Fiba entered a wide-ranging strategic partnership with media group Perform (now DAZN Group) over 17 years. For the period of four Basketball World Cup cycles spanning 2017 to 2033, Perform became Fiba’s worldwide partner for the distribution and sale of all media-related rights, and a new company called Fiba Media was created.
China, which hosted the last edition of the Fiba World Cup in 2019, is Fiba’s most-lucrative market. Digital company Tencent secured digital rights in China to all Fiba national-team events from 2017 to 2025. Linear rights for the same period were assigned to state broadcaster CCTV, a federation partner since 1994.
The second-most lucrative market for Fiba is Spain, where commercial broadcaster Mediaset holds rights in a deal, from 2017 to 2021. The deal represented a slight increase on Mediaset’s previous three-year deal, from 2013 to 2015.
In France, Pay-television broadcaster Canal Plus holds rights to all Fiba events in the 2017-21 cycle. This represented a 50-per-cent increase on the broadcaster’s previous deal, from 2013 to 2015.
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Domestic leagues around the world
Chinese Basketball Association
Outside of the United States, the Chinese Basketball Association is the domestic basketball league that receives the most revenue from the media-rights sales in the current 2017 to 2020 cycle. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV agreed a 10-season deal, from 2017-18 to 2026-27, for linear and non-exclusive digital rights to three matches per week. Streaming platforms Tencent and Zhibo hold non-exclusive digital rights in three-season deals, from 2017-18 to 2019-20.
All these deals were agreed directly by the CBA, which decided to sell its rights directly to broadcasters after having partnered with the Infront agency for over ten years. In the previous cycle, Infront held rights for five seasons, from 2012-13 to 2016-17 to distribute the leagues’ media and marketing rights globally.
French LNB Pro A
In France, the French Basketball League (LNB) agreed to a deal with telco Altice from 2015 to 2020. The deal allowed the Altice-owned broadcaster Ma Chaîne Sport to become the official broadcaster of French basketball, covering all national competitions.
The agreement was immediately signed after LNB terminated its contract with Canal Plus after the pay-television broadcaster closed its Sport Plus channel. The original deal was to run from 2012 to 2017.
Turkish Basketbol Süper Ligi
Basketball is extremely popular in Turkey, where the popularity of the league and its top clubs has grown in recent years, helped by Turkish club performances in the Euroleague.
Infront holds global media and marketing rights to the Basketbol Süper Ligi in a 10-season deal, from 2013-14 to 2022-23.
In 2018, telco Türk Telekom shocked the market, agreeing a three-season deal, from 2018-19 to 2020-21, for domestic rights. The deal represented a 222-per-cent increase on the lira value of the previous deal when it was signed with pay-television broadcaster beIN Sports and the Doğuş Media Group for rights from 2015-16 to 2017-18.
Spanish Liga ACB
Spanish telco Telefónica holds pay-television rights to all the league matches in a three-season deal, from 2019 to 2021. The deal represented a significant decrease on the previous agreement with Telefónica from 2015 to 2018.
Moreover, the league benefits from extended international coverage in more than 140 countries. In 2018, the Asociación de Clubs de Baloncesto (ACB) took media-rights sales in-house; after that the MP & Silva agency served as the international rights distribution partner of the ACB for eight years.
For the 2018-21 cycle, the Spanish national sports association agreed several deals, including DAZN in Germany, Austria and Switzerland; Cosmote in Greece; Arena Sport in the Balkans; Charlton in Israel and D-Smart in Turkey.
Greek Basket League
Among the major European basketball leagues, the Greek Basket League is the only one where select teams negotiate independent media-rights deals.
In 2018, public broadcaster ERT renewed its deal for the matches of 11 out 14 teams of the Greek Basket League covering the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons. Although the deal excludes home matches played by Panathinaikos BC, Olympiacos BC and AEK Athens BC, it represents a 44 per cent increase on ERT’s previous deal for the same rights for the 2017-18 season.
The three teams not included in ERT agreement all negotiated separate deals with pay-television broadcaster Cosmote.
Cosmote’s three-season deal with AEK lasts from 2018-19 to 2020-21, while Panathinaikos’ deal is for 2018-19 and 2019-20 and is slightly more valuable. Both deals represented uplifts on the teams’ previous deals with Cosmote.
Olympiacos had a four-season deal from 2015-16 to 2018-19 with Cosmote, however the deal was not renewed for the current 2019-20 season. There were numerous controversies in the 2018-19 season, which saw Olympiacos withdrawing from play-off matches against rival Panathinaikos. As a result, Olympiacos was relegated to the Greek Basketball second division for the 2019-20 season and Cosmote has not broadcasted its domestic league matches.
Click on each league logo to filter historical media-rights value information.
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