Marsha Blackburn Asks NBA Exec Point Blank If They Made 'Any Concessions On Free Speech' To Air In China

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At a Senate Commerce Committee hearing last week, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) spoke about the NBA's relationship with China.

Transcript

00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to each of you for being here.

00:05In Tennessee, we love our sports teams also.

00:09And Mr. Koenig, I want to come to you because I've, through the years,

00:15looked at the NBA's relationship with oppressive regimes around the globe.

00:21And, of course, you all have had quite a cozy relationship with the CCP.

00:26And we know how they censor.

00:31And going back to 2019 with Daryl Morey's tweet in support of the Hong Kong freedom fighters,

00:39and that resulted in the suspension of the NBA broadcast on their state-run media channels.

00:48And in recent years, it appears that you all have patched that relationship up,

00:53which means there had to be some sort of deal that was there,

00:58and it must have been quite a deal.

01:01So, since we're talking about broadcast rights and what they're worth,

01:05why don't you tell me what the broadcast rights in China are worth,

01:11and how much NBA owners have invested in China?

01:20Thank you, Senator.

01:23The NBA does have a very long history of distributing our games and content in China

01:34for more than 30 years.

01:37No, I'm not asking about the length of time you've been in China.

01:41I'm asking, what are the media rights worth?

01:45You're the president of Global Content and Media Distribution.

01:49So, what are those rights worth,

01:52and how much have the NBA owners invested in China?

01:57The NBA does not comment publicly on the financial terms of our relationships in the U.S. or abroad,

02:10but I can comment that you are accurate that,

02:14in light of the tweet that Daryl Morey made in 2019...

02:21You had to cut a deal.

02:23No, we did not cut a deal.

02:24Oh, you did?

02:25No, we did not cut a deal.

02:26What happened was, the games were taken off of CCTV, you're right.

02:31The games continued to air on Tencent and other distribution outlets in China.

02:36And then, after more than a year...

02:39So, did you make any concessions on free speech?

02:42No, to the contrary.

02:44Not at all.

02:45Because the estimates are that these media rights are worth hundreds of millions of dollars to you all,

02:51and that NBA team owners have invested as much as $10 billion.

02:58And I think some clarity around those numbers would be important.

03:05The other thing that we look at is human rights,

03:12and we look at how the NBA has punished players who have spoken out against human rights abusers in China.

03:22Enos Kanter, Freedom, one specifically.

03:26So, can you commit to me that in every deal the NBA makes around the globe that the league is upholding human rights,

03:38and that the league is upholding freedom of speech,

03:43and they're upholding the American ideals of freedom?

03:48Can you make that commitment?

03:49Senator, I can certainly confirm that one of the NBA's most important values is freedom of speech.

03:59In fact, the example you cited before of Daryl Morey,

04:02he was not disciplined or censored in any way in light of the comments that he made.

04:09And you're right that that comment may have led to the lack of coverage by CCTV and other things.

04:18But, you know, we very much value freedom of speech, and that's something that I can confirm,

04:25and it's something that's one of our...

04:27What about your actions in Rwanda?

04:32You're the global president.

04:34You ought to have an answer on that one.

04:36Mr. Proper, let me come to you, if you don't mind.

04:39Sure.

04:40One of the things that we are concerned about, and Senator Klobuchar touched on this,

04:50is pirated broadcasts that are available.

04:56And the Predators are mighty popular in Tennessee.

05:01People love going to those games.

05:03And as we were looking at this, I think it's $28 billion in potential revenue loss that is there from pirated.

05:11So tell me what you're doing to combat the rise of these illegal sports streaming,

05:19because, you know, the players aren't benefiting from that.

05:25Thank you, Senator.

05:25It's a great question, and it's something that everybody struggles with.

05:28The fact of the matter is, we have an outside service that helps us to track pirated broadcasts.

05:34We work with our broadcast partners.

05:36We have gotten orders of court that have allowed us, in certain markets, to stop these pirated broadcasts.

05:45But at the end of the day, many of them come from foreign jurisdictions.

05:50They are what we affectionately refer to as whack-a-mole.

05:53You knock one down and two more pop up.

05:55But you can rest assured that everybody's trying to do the best they can worldwide.

06:00But any tools that come available to us, we will all use, because it is a definite drag on our industry.

06:07Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

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