Sports programming, whether based on fiction or real life, has been a safe bet for Apple TV+. Based on the life of a coach who runs a soccer club, Ted Lasso, in another country, the series is the platform’s most successful series, with Major League Baseball and Major League Soccer broadcasts gaining more followers. Still, even Apple can’t have everything it wants.

There has been speculation for months about the possibility of Apple acquiring the NBA rights, but this week a CNBC report further explored that possibility. While the NBA wants to sell various streaming packages to “triple its current revenue,” existing deals with other chains prevented Apple from bidding.

Apple wants to increase its sports offering

Right now, Warner Bros., Discovery, and Disney have exclusive television rights to NBA games.. Like this No formal negotiations can take place until these companies agree to waive their exclusive window of trade.It expires in April 2024.

According to information from CNBC, Disney may be most interested in making a bid to retain the rights.however, a comment from CEO Bob Iger suggested that the offer would fall short of the NBA’s expectations.

At the time, Iger said he hopes to retain the NBA rights, but spoke to ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro. “We will have to be more selective” By purchasing more sports rights with the intention of changing ESPN from linear to ESPN+.

Currently, Apple, Google and Amazon are the three companies interested in acquiring the rights, but at this stage, none of them have been able to make an official offer. However, if other rumors fail to reach the sums he hoped to achieve, NBA would choose to sign non-exclusive dealsand CNBC suggests deals could be closed with three or four different companies. These may be for separate packages, but there may also be conflicts.

In any case, Amazon is the most advanced at this stage, because at the moment can stream games in brazilThanks to a previous deal with the NBA.

In any case, it is possible that this situation is not entirely attractive to Apple and prefers exclusivity. as it does with similar deals, but the million-dollar question is how much he’s willing to spend to get it.