NBA announces new $24 billion TV deal with ESPN, Turner

The new NBA TV deal is worth a whopping $24 billion over the next nine years, which will make owners very rich. As Wizards head man Ted Leonsis said in the press conference announcing the deal, it’s a great time to be an owner.

And that doesn’t make Kobe Bryant very happy.

New NBPA executive director Michele Roberts released a brief statement, calling the TV deal “good news” for stakeholders in the NBA. She also stated that the NBPA’s job will be making sure players receive their “fair share,” as reported by CBS Sports’ Ken Berger:

It’s still early in the process, but the NBA is expected to approach the drastic increase by trying to “smooth” things out gradually, rather than see a big bump in salary once the new TV deal is active. The NBA’s salary cap, currently at $63 million, could rise to over $88 million, according to early projections.

The NBA will attempt to “smooth out” the massive projected increases in the salary cap that’ll result from the new $24 billion television deal starting in 2016, commissioner Adam Silver confirmed in a press conference. The idea is to have them arrive in smaller doses rather than one huge jump in 2016.

Such a move will need to be collectively bargained with the players union, but Silver said he has preliminary meetings planned with new NBPA head Michele Roberts to discuss just that.

As part of a new television contract that will pay the NBA $2.67 billion through the 2024-25 season, ESPN has negotiated a new online, live streaming video package that will show regular season games. The service will reportedly be available to people who aren’t cable or satellite subscribers, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Gaining the online video rights was an essential part of the deal for ESPN, because the package could have conceivably been sold to a third party. It remains unclear how this will differ from NBA League Pass, the current television and online package that allows NBA fans to watch out of market games for a subscription fee.

One small, yet interesting nugget in the NBA’s new $24 billion TV deal with ESPN and Turner: the former will begin broadcasting NBA Development League and Summer League games on ESPN, ESPN2 and WatchESPN, according to a press release.

Currently, NBATV occasionally televises the D-League and broadcasts certain Summer League games. The D-League itself partnered with YouTube last year to broadcast its games live on that channel. It’s unclear if that arrangement will continue under the new television contract.

Turner Sports will air a season-ending awards show that announces the MVP, Rookie of the Year and other key league honors as part of the NBA’s massive new TV deal beginning in 2016-17, the league announced. This arrangement mirrors the NFL and NHL, both of whom have introduced their own awards shows in recent years.

The exact date of the new awards show is unknown. Currently, the individual teams announce key awards during the first and second rounds of the NBA Playoffs. This sometimes causes awkward situations where an MVP may be forced to accept the award after his team has been eliminated from the playoffs. This most notably happened in 2007, when Dirk Nowitzki’s Mavericks were upset in the first round.