The New Jersey Nets have reached an agreement on a 10-year local TV rights extension with YES Network, doubling the team's annual take, reports the Sports Business Journal (via NetsDaily). The Journal reports that the Nets' annual TV rights' revenue will be doubled to $20 million at the front end of the deal, and that the annual take will grow by the end of the deal, which is now set to expire in 2032.
Nets Reportedly Sign TV Rights Extension With YES Network, Doubling Annual Revenue
The New Jersey Nets will make $20 million in annual local TV rights fees under a new contract with YES Network.
The Journal reports that the Nets had been resistant to a 10-year extension on the deal, but that was eventually the price for a re-negotiation of the payment the network would make. The Nets are scheduled to move to Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the 2012-13 season; the franchise and its new owner Mikhail Prokhorov have exceeding high hopes for the Nets’ popularity in a new, more exciting locale. The Nets had been toiling in New Jersey, with awful attendance even in the shiny new Prudential Center in Newark this past season. If the NBA lockout doesn’t kill the entire 2011-12 season, the Nets will again play in Newark.
The Nets' new deal follows a pattern in which a number of teams negotiate extensions to their TV rights deals in what is an increasingly lucrative revenue stream. The Boston Celtics and Golden State Warriors each recently re-negotiated their TV rights deals, and the Los Angeles Lakers signed a mammoth new deal with Time Warner worth up to $5 billion over 25 years.
For more on the Nets, visit NetsDaily.
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