As the NBA continues to work on its media rights negotiations past next season, more reports have come out about who might be getting what in the new deals. A new report from John Ourand of Puck says Amazon, which has not signed a deal yet, is likely to end up with its own Saturday night slate of games as well as the NBA’s In-Season Tournament and the postseason play-in games.
There had been speculation another streamer such as Netflix might be in the bidding for the either the In-Season Tournament or the postseason play-in games. Ourand also reports the Amazon deal is expected to include a conference finals series every other year as well as some additional playoff games in earlier rounds.
ESPN, who also is said to have the framework of a deal in place with nothing signed as of yet, is expected to pay more than $1 billion more than the $1.5 billion annual price tag they had been paying and will end up with less programming. As part of the deal ESPN would get one conference finals and the NBA finals each year of the deal, which is believed to be for a period of ten years.
The one big piece remaining for the NBA is who a third partner will be. Warner Bros. Discovery has been a longtime NBA partner, but a recent report in the Wall Street Journal suggested NBC was making a bid around $2.5 million to steal the rights from WBD.
