News on negotiations with ESPN, Warner Bros. Discovery

Exclusive media rights to the National Basketball Association negotiation window with current partners Disney And Discovery of Warner Bros. is likely to expire on Monday without a new agreement, according to people familiar with the matter.

Starting next week, the NBA can work on deals for new partners to present game packages. Amazon, AppleYouTube TV, Comcastfrom NBCUniversal/Peacock and Netflix have all had preliminary conversations with the league expressing potential interest, CNBC reported last year. The exclusive negotiation window with the league’s historic partners officially ends on Monday.

Although no deal is expected to be announced before the deadline, Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery both continue to work on league terms, an NBA spokesperson confirmed. The NBA would like to bring in at least one new partner to serve as its flagship streamer, CNBC reported last year. The league is looking for a “robust” streaming partner that will use marketing and reach to make games a priority on its platform, CNBC reported.

“We continue to have productive discussions with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery about renewing our media agreements,” a league spokesperson said in a statement to CNBC.

Spokespeople for Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery declined to comment.

TBS from Warner Bros. Discovery began broadcasting NBA games in 1984, and TNT has broadcast NBA games since 1988. Disney’s ESPN and ABC have broadcast the NBA since 2002. The two companies have both publicly expressed their desire to reconnect with the NBA and joined forces. with Fox to launch a new streaming service aimed at sports fans who don’t already pay for cable. That service will debut in the fall, the companies announced earlier this year.

The NBA is looking to double the $24 billion generated by its previous media rights deal with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery by adding new partners and charging more for the rights, CNBC reported last year. In 2014, during the NBA’s most recent negotiations, the league renewed its rights with Disney and Time Warner approximately five months before the end of its exclusive negotiating window. The NBA also doubled the price of its rights under this deal compared to its previous deal.

This time, discussions with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery are more complicated due to the likely addition of a third party. Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery do not want to lose the rights they already have. Still, the league expects a big increase in fees, and neither company wants to bear the burden of paying much more for what it already has, according to people familiar with the negotiations.

This allows the league to bring in another party – or maybe even two more. The NBA could sell its new package of in-season tournament games to a separate media company from its main new streaming partner, one of the people said.

The value of popular live sports programs has increased due to their value to advertisers. While ad-free subscription streaming services have increasingly become the home of popular scripted programming, sports are still primarily watched live, forcing viewers to watch commercials.

Last year’s NBA playoffs were the most watched in 11 years on TNT, ABC, ESPN and NBA TV, according to Nielsen. However, regular season viewership has plateaued this year.

This year’s average television audience of 1.56 million marked a 1% decline from last year’s 1.59 million and was the lowest in three years across ABC, ESPN and TNT, according to SportsMediaWatch. TNT averaged 1.4 million viewers for its 65 regular-season games, equal to the previous year, according to a Warner Bros. spokesperson. Discovery.

The first round of the NBA playoffs will begin on Saturday.

Disclosure: Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of CNBC.

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